great posting uuum.

it just highlights what everyone has being saying here, change the starting 10.

www.irishrugby.ie/matchdaytv/index/index/id/10222

Hopefully that link works but if not just go to the IRFU website and there is an interview with Gav.

Apart from the Vince Lombardi quote/reference I was also impressed with his comments about taking the drop goal when its available and developing an attitude of doing what is needed to get infront in games.

I know talk is cheap but its reassuring to hear that the DG issue at least seems to being discussed amongst the team.

Our main problem is we cannot chase a lead as a team, if we start slowly we are done for even if we only concede a couple of scores. From a scoring persepective our main problem seems to be be tactical in that the team seems to be under instruction to score tries at all costs, sure we'll take a pot at the posts from a penalty, but our phase play is heads down trying to force the opposition defence to crack. I keep going back to this but our 10's should be exerting more control on the pitch. If they see a dropgoal opportunity call for the ball and drill it, every time we come away form a period of dominance possession and territory wise it just cranks up the pressure on the team the next we have posseision and we end up in tunnel vision mode. Take easy options and then come back for more, the best teams know they have to keep the scoreboard moving...

Look at the dominant rugby teams of the last twenty years, the majority do not go out trying to score tries from minute one, they try to dominate possession and territory wise and get the opposition to concede penalties costing the points and also ramping up the physcological pressure...

ummm,'s been at the stats again...

Points allowed this season:

Team	Points
Ospreys	153
Munster	161
Glasgow	163
Scarlets	171
Leinster	173
Ulster	174
Connacht	188
Treviso	200
Dragons	201
Cardiff	203
Edinburgh	241
Aironi	286

Defensively, as a team, we're doing quite well.

Tries against this season:

Team	Points
Munster	9
Ospreys	10
Glasgow	11
Scarlets	12
Ulster	13
Leinster	15
Connacht	16
Dragons	17
Cardiff	18
Treviso	19
Edinburgh	24
Aironi	28

Not bad at all, middle of the road. Very close to Leinster and Ulster.

Our problem is attacking. Maybe it's just the impression I have, but we seem to get most tries from broken play rather than planned moves, Gav's try against Glaws was the latest of this trend. Our offensive abilities are lacking. And we're missing far too many penalties of our own.

Points scored this season:

Team	Points
Leinster	266
Edinburgh	235
Ospreys	222
Cardiff	210
Treviso	208
Munster	207
Glasgow	197
Scarlets	180
Ulster	180
Dragons	149
Connacht	138
Aironi	122

Just look at that, second from bottom. I'll happily take a player with an offload that can unlock defenses if it means being a little bit shakier in defense, because right now we have all the hallmarks of a team trying not to lose rather than trying to win. And it's not working.

It's clear that from our try stats we're close to the others. We need to make our kicks and improve discipline, because those little margins are killing us. Just look at Glasgow, allowed 11, scored 11. But they're in 4th! This is an incredibly tight league.


All Pro12 stats, BTW. I'm not mixing the HEC ones in. That's another kettle of bananas.

Have to agree with ummm & clan, i think people are writing off Henry to quickly. I think also that people are little quick on hyping Tonetti, from what i've seen so far i wouldn't be to impressed, his tackling for the first Gloucester try was ridiculously poor.

Porterbelly wrote:

clan clover wrote: Quite Simple really, Henry is been played out of position, he is not a 12 he is a 13, he has a great side step and always looks to off load. Vainikolo I have seen enough of to know he has talent another chap looking to receive and give an off load and with pace to burn. Griffin will be a good player but he does drift in and out of matches, same with TOH who has been skinned twice now in as many weeks, he has top end speed but not acceleration so he is pretty damn easy to get around especially if he continues to show attackers the outside lane. Both will be good players, but they are not there yet.

Henry is a 12 or a winger any cap he got for Samoa was on the wing and he played most of his rugby for Leeds on the wing. His preferred position is 12. As long as 13 is the key position for the defensive line Henry will be nowhere near getting that slot. He also won't get the 12 slot. He's about as dynamic as a bag of cats, he can't defend, he won't put his body on the line and he can't move his feet. In his last start v Cardiff any time they ran at pace at him he was beaten. Liability pure and simple.

Griffin only picked up his form when played alongside McSharry. For the 1st few games of the season he was outside Henry and Henry doesn't like to pass so Griffin got very little. No coincedence that his best game this season was away to Quins, when McSharry was at 12.

O Halloran does need to improve his acceleration but in his defence Sharples is the probably the quickest winger in England.

We will have to disagree, certainly I have seen his side step and his step over and he is more then capable of both as for 13 been a key defensive position, its no more key then 12 and is much easier to defend then 12 especially if you use the rush system. On the passing McSharry is not so good on this either and never seems to want or look for an off load where Henry does and Griffin is never there to accept, so its not that Henry does not pass its that Griffin is not there to accept. On TOH never mind this weekend a number of times I have seen him skinned be it under 19's or senior team he has the overall speed but not the acceleration nor is he a tackle breaker and this would or should be his priority but I would guess its new at this level to him, but what ever about TOH at least he faces the right direction, tracks back and makes tackles unlike another winger we have I could name.

Henry looks pretty decent with the ball in hand, looks for the off load etc but Defensively he is flatfooted so anything at pace either side is difficult for him, 12 ok but 13 never.

IMO 13 is a very lateral defensive position, good footwork and very quick side to side movement required, griffin is very good defensively. Tonnetti will be a good 12 as well with either mcsharry or griffin on the
Outside.

We could see griffin move to 14 occasionally when all three are fit. Be a way of getting our best players on the pitch.

I wouldn't go so far as to call Henry a liability, but it's clear there are parts of his game that need to improve.

And we need that improvement to rotate players. If we keep playing the same players every week they'll end up injured through wear and tear. We need Tonetti and Henry pushing Eoin and Dave to give us not just selection headaches, but also the comfort that anyone coming in isn't going to drop our quality by too much.

On balance I reckon our group of centres this year has the potential to be the strongest we've had in a long while. Other centres may have been individually better, but as a group we're looking healthy enough.

clan clover wrote: Quite Simple really, Henry is been played out of position, he is not a 12 he is a 13, he has a great side step and always looks to off load. Vainikolo I have seen enough of to know he has talent another chap looking to receive and give an off load and with pace to burn. Griffin will be a good player but he does drift in and out of matches, same with TOH who has been skinned twice now in as many weeks, he has top end speed but not acceleration so he is pretty damn easy to get around especially if he continues to show attackers the outside lane. Both will be good players, but they are not there yet.

Henry is a 12 or a winger any cap he got for Samoa was on the wing and he played most of his rugby for Leeds on the wing. His preferred position is 12. As long as 13 is the key position for the defensive line Henry will be nowhere near getting that slot. He also won't get the 12 slot. He's about as dynamic as a bag of cats, he can't defend, he won't put his body on the line and he can't move his feet. In his last start v Cardiff any time they ran at pace at him he was beaten. Liability pure and simple.

Griffin only picked up his form when played alongside McSharry. For the 1st few games of the season he was outside Henry and Henry doesn't like to pass so Griffin got very little. No coincedence that his best game this season was away to Quins, when McSharry was at 12.

O Halloran does need to improve his acceleration but in his defence Sharples is the probably the quickest winger in England.

Quite Simple really, Henry is been played out of position, he is not a 12 he is a 13, he has a great side step and always looks to off load. Vainikolo I have seen enough of to know he has talent another chap looking to receive and give an off load and with pace to burn. Griffin will be a good player but he does drift in and out of matches, same with TOH who has been skinned twice now in as many weeks, he has top end speed but not acceleration so he is pretty damn easy to get around especially if he continues to show attackers the outside lane. Both will be good players, but they are not there yet.

clan clover wrote: So he should take a punt and do the most outrageous think and pick a team of players in form and playing in position he might be surprised we might win a game. Depending on injuries I would use the below. If anybody is there early to watch the warmup, you can see some fantastic backs play, missed moves etc but they never ever use them in the game what the hell is that about.

Duffy
Vainikola (Vainikolo)
Henry
McSharry
McRae
Jarvis
O Donohoe
George
Ofisa/McKeon
Muldoon
McCarthy
Swift/Gannon
Rodgers (Rogers)
Reyneeke (Reynecke)
Wilkinson

Flavin
Ah You
Loughney
Kearney
Murphy
Griffin
Nikora

You want to pick a team in form and choose Henry over Griffin, and Vainikolo over O'Halloran. What form are you reading into??

I wouldn't have those two in the squad never mind the XV

More money would be great, but the guys dug their own hole so I doubt they will get anything, recruitment has been a disaster. The joke in the stands on Saturday was you cannot join Connacht unless you rent a house off the management. That aside EE made comments last year about just getting on with it with what he had, I am sure this will be thrown back at him by Browne and his cronnies from D4.
I am also pretty sure, the lack of game plans, the bad use of what resources we have, i.e players not been used(after all who signed them)the playing players out of position for no good reason will all come into it. EE is safe in his job, he knows that in fact they all know their positions are safe,so this run can go on and on until Connacht is no more. With the huge strides been made off the pitch in terms of image, EE owes it to fans to get off his bike and work out a solution with what he has, I do not think he has the ability and I think he never had it in the first place we had proof of this in the Bradley era and concrete proof now. So he should take a punt and do the most outrageous think and pick a team of players in form and playing in position he might be surprised we might win a game. Depending on injuries I would use the below. If anybody is there early to watch the warmup, you can see some fantastic backs play, missed moves etc but they never ever use them in the game what the hell is that about.

Duffy
Vainikola
Henry
McSharry
McRae
Jarvis
O Donohoe
George
Ofisa/McKeon
Muldoon
McCarthy
Swift/Gannon
Rodgers
Reyneeke
Wilkinson

Flavin
Ah You
Loughney
Kearney
Murphy
Griffin
Nikora

What they do in the UK is give the players wives/family members etc "jobs" in the club on salaries of 50/60/70k, thats how they get around the salary cap

Rossie, that salary cap in England is very loose I'd imagine, and there's certainly ways and means around it.

Look at Leicester's squad, Castro is on 400k, there's no way they're inside 4 million. Sarries had a quality squad put together and were then able to go out and sign John Smit mid season, and then Tomkins the rugby league player?

The smaller clubs like Newcastle and Worcester are probably inside it but alot of the others aren't.

From a piece in the independent yesterday

As Elwood alluded to again this week, it's all about the money, and Connacht do not have it. Although president Gerry Kelly's meeting with the IRFU this week was part of the regular schedule and not the cap-in-hand emergency exercise it was reported to be, finances remain the overwhelming issue.

I agree with a lot of what you say porterbelly and a lot of others comments as well.

However IRFU would argue that 3m a year is a significant investment each year in a province that until this year hasnt being giving a return on that investment(turnstile wise). I just dont believe that they will invest any more than that in the future. The english teams are restrained by a salary cap of 4m sterling so clubs like leicester have a lot of dev players in their squads to bulk them up. When you take that into consideration connacht have a squad of 37 plus 15 acadamy players 2 of which have made matchday squads.
All im saying is that any improvements will take time and will have to come from within. If you look at The matchday squads of the provinces this weekend, Munster have 17 munster produced players, Leinster have 10 leinster produced players starting(havent seen bench) and ulster something similar. Connacht have 6 home produced players. It will take a bit of time to achieve those levels.
In the meantime they need to continue to invest in the facilities and maybe a couple of starlets at tighthead and outhalf to give season ticket holders some hope and a reason to come back next year.