Pro12 Final

[tate]

how is it patronising being happy for a team that have been sh!t since forever, who turned around and came out quite brilliant? do you not shake hands with the opposition after a game and offer a sincere congratulations? particularly after a final - you can be happy for them and disappointed with your own teams many many inadequacies

[Angelsea Angst]

I believe the bookies odds on Connacht winning the Pro12 at the start of the season were 50 to 1. Some people must have made a killing today.

[rookie]

Fair play to the Leinster fans, their presence was amazing!

[carlow man]

Well done connacht. Maybe Joe will revise his squad after that performance. Healey and ohalloran have to travel. Both have pace and score tries. We have rob k who is one of the worst full backs in Europe right now. Pathetic attempt to tackle ohalloran. The guy is shot. Unreal that kelleher was allowed to join connacht while we have to watch a one paced muscle bound fullback run in a straight line into the first defender. But hey, joe knows best.

[blues_fan]

Had a blast watching that. 'Grats to Connacht.

Also, how the **** does Connacht 1st5 end up playing for the USA of all places?? What is going on with Irish talent evaluation. That is a giant blunder letting him slip through. Almost as bad as Auckland.

[footrush]

Fair play to the Leinster fans, their presence was amazing!

All shouted out now, well deserved Connacht !. Great stadium hope it's in Flaminio in Rome next year ?. This final is becoming a real occasion !.

[jezzer]

It was a bad performance from an inconsistent team with an underexperienced coach. Against the exact opposite.

We missed Toner a lot. But it wouldn't have changed the game with the way our backs played, esp half backs. Back three be for Zane came on were pants also.

[Chengleng1]

Well done Connacht, worthy champions.

Disappointing from a leinster perspective, but a win may have papered over some cracks. Starting 15 outplayed by opposite numbers bar Heaslip & McGrath.

Desperately need some pace in the back three but hard to see where its going to come from with only Adam Byrne under 25 in next years squad. Maybe Reid-Henshaw midfield with Ringrose on the wing?

Anyway well Connacht, delighted for muldoon especially

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

[alanair]

Connacht were good , we were shite (especially the Kearneys) end of

[Angelsea Angst]

There are a number of positives from today:
- Irish rugby playing style given a major wake-up call by Pat Lam.
- Connacht are now the fourth Irish province to win the Pro12.
- Pro12 Final venue proves a success despite some poor scheduling. Hope it is in Rome next year.
- Irish media must now move on from its obsession with Munster. A more balanced coverage of all provinces will now be required.
- Fair play to TG4 for its support of the Pro12. Connacht winning is good also for TG4. Fair play also to Pat Lam for using the cupla focal.
- Connacht reclaim 'the fields of Athenry' to its rightful home.
- Future derbys between Leinster and Connacht will be as big as those with Ulster or Munster.
The major negative of course is that Leinster lost. But let Leo and his coaching team learn from this loss and come back stronger next season. Maybe if we won it could have papered over the cracks which need to be sorted.
-

[fourthirtythree]

There are a number of positives from today:
- Irish rugby playing style given a major wake-up call by Pat Lam.
- Connacht are now the fourth Irish province to win the Pro12.
- Pro12 Final venue proves a success despite some poor scheduling. Hope it is in Rome next year.
- Irish media must now move on from its obsession with Munster. A more balanced coverage of all provinces will now be required.
- Fair play to TG4 for its support of the Pro12. Connacht winning is good also for TG4. Fair play also to Pat Lam for using the cupla focal.
- Connacht reclaim 'the fields of Athenry' to its rightful home.
- Future derbys between Leinster and Connacht will be as big as those with Ulster or Munster.
The major negative of course is that Leinster lost. But let Leo and his coaching team learn from this loss and come back stronger next season. Maybe if we won it could have papered over the cracks which need to be sorted.
-

Thank you for that post, really good.

Well done Connacht. As Jezzer said we really, really missed Toner today but if we had scraped through it would have been a travesty given our continued poor back play. As Blues Fan put it the evaluation of talent in Irish rugby (or at least Leinster rugby, most of the good backs out there today being leinster rejects) has to be suspect and seriously needs to be reconsidered. As goreyguy says: would the likes of Healy have prospered in Leinster? Would the Trinity wing I can't spell right now have been improved in Leinster?

We need experienced coaching. We need vim and vigour in our backline. And quite shockingly we looked like rabbits in the headlights out there. In the first 15 when we were on top we looked nervous and threw it away. We've shown that Healy and O'Halloran can be sidelined from a game if you dominate them and we instead ushered them into it.

Budee Aki was serious class though, he and Henshaw were always going to be ahead of Teo and Ringrose...

Well done again Connacht. It's not patronising to say that this win is good for the league, good for Irish rugby, and good for rugby in general. If it's taken in the right spirit it could be good for Leinster rugby too. We need that wakeup call.

Sucks to be a Leinster supporter right now though...

[tate]

Well done connacht. Maybe Joe will revise his squad after that performance. Healey and ohalloran have to travel. Both have pace and score tries. We have rob k who is one of the worst full backs in Europe right now. Pathetic attempt to tackle ohalloran. The guy is shot. Unreal that kelleher was allowed to join connacht while we have to watch a one paced muscle bound fullback run in a straight line into the first defender. But hey, joe knows best.

he'd want to, systems are all well and good but our back three were 100% outshone today and healy and ohalloran have been miles better than them all season.

speed kills and they showed it again today

[jezzer]

Bear in mind a lot of Connacht players got to develop in the team over a long period but they got away with it because Connacht fans expected the losses that came with playing a young TOH or Healy or Marmion or Muldowney.

We expect to win AND blood young players. If you go that typical route you'll bring fewer players through. That's just a fact.

Connacht had the luxury of losing.

[enby]

Bear in mind a lot of Connacht players got to develop in the team over a long period but they got away with it because Connacht fans expected the losses that came with playing a young TOH or Healy or Marmion or Muldowney.

We expect to win AND blood young players. If you go that typical route you'll bring fewer players through. That's just a fact.

Connacht had the luxury of losing.

Good post.

Really refreshing to see Connacht backs use speed, guile and evasion as well as power in attack. How the Kearneys and Trimble are in the Irish squad ahead of the Connacht back three is a question that only Joe can answer.

Dillane was absolutely outstanding. What a prospect.

Sexton's incredible try saving tackle will probably be forgotten but it shouldn't be.

[Flash Gordon]

Triumph for a well coached team against a team that wasn't coached well. Our international count vs Connacht was ridiculously superior but our linespeed was poor in the first half, our defence was shocking, we couldn't break their line, our lineout was a mess and despite a clearly superior scrum we didn't use that platform to dominate. We've had coaching problems for a few years and that needs to be rectifiied. Tonight was a microcosm for our season against decent opposition unfortunately. Despite the players, we just don't have the coaching to bring it home. In particular we need an attack coach with significant experience.

Today wasn't good enough. And though I'm not going to claim it was decisive because I thought Connacht deserved to win, Nigel had a howler.

[MrSensible]

It was a bad performance from an inconsistent team with an underexperienced coach. Against the exact opposite.

We missed Toner a lot. But it wouldn't have changed the game with the way our backs played, esp half backs. Back three be for Zane came on were pants also.

Agree 100%

[MrSensible]

There are a number of positives from today:
- Irish rugby playing style given a major wake-up call by Pat Lam.
- Connacht are now the fourth Irish province to win the Pro12.
- Pro12 Final venue proves a success despite some poor scheduling. Hope it is in Rome next year.
- Irish media must now move on from its obsession with Munster. A more balanced coverage of all provinces will now be required.
- Fair play to TG4 for its support of the Pro12. Connacht winning is good also for TG4. Fair play also to Pat Lam for using the cupla focal.
- Connacht reclaim 'the fields of Athenry' to its rightful home.
- Future derbys between Leinster and Connacht will be as big as those with Ulster or Munster.
The major negative of course is that Leinster lost. But let Leo and his coaching team learn from this loss and come back stronger next season. Maybe if we won it could have papered over the cracks which need to be sorted.
-

Thank you for that post, really good.

Well done Connacht. As Jezzer said we really, really missed Toner today but if we had scraped through it would have been a travesty given our continued poor back play. As Blues Fan put it the evaluation of talent in Irish rugby (or at least Leinster rugby, most of the good backs out there today being leinster rejects) has to be suspect and seriously needs to be reconsidered. As goreyguy says: would the likes of Healy have prospered in Leinster? Would the Trinity wing I can't spell right now have been improved in Leinster?

We need experienced coaching. We need vim and vigour in our backline. And quite shockingly we looked like rabbits in the headlights out there. In the first 15 when we were on top we looked nervous and threw it away. We've shown that Healy and O'Halloran can be sidelined from a game if you dominate them and we instead ushered them into it.

Budee Aki was serious class though, he and Henshaw were always going to be ahead of Teo and Ringrose...

Well done again Connacht. It's not patronising to say that this win is good for the league, good for Irish rugby, and good for rugby in general. If it's taken in the right spirit it could be good for Leinster rugby too. We need that wakeup call.

Sucks to be a Leinster supporter right now though...

Connacht are a Team. Leinster appear to be a group of individuals who just come together to play a match. That's down to the man who is leading them

[carlow man]

Not sure how much extra a good backs coach can bring? Our backs have no pace, no step apart from luke but with his injury record how can we rely on him?, none of them are prolific try scorers and don't have the size to run over people. You can't give a player pace or a step so where do u go with our backline? We have been overtaken by other sides in Europe who play at a pace and tempo we can't cope with. Then when we have the ball it's like we are running in treacle!!

[jezzer]

Not sure how much extra a good backs coach can bring? Our backs have no pace, no step apart from luke but with his injury record how can we rely on him?, none of them are prolific try scorers and don't have the size to run over people. You can't give a player pace or a step so where do u go with our backline? We have been overtaken by other sides in Europe who play at a pace and tempo we can't cope with. Then when we have the ball it's like we are running in treacle!!

Noel Reid is that player. He's exactly the kind of guy Lam would pick and would accept the losses that come with blooding him. We need Reid at 12 imo. I would never have taken Henshaw personally. I'd much prefer to have signed a quality 3/4 player. You won't win as many games initially with a Reid Ringrose midfield as with a Henshaw Ringrose one. But eventually I believe Reid can be the better player. At the least as suggested above Reid can play 12 to Robbie's 13 with Ringrose on the wing.

[bails]

Congratulations to Connacht, well deserved, fantastic display of ball handling.

Most disappointing from a Leinster point of view was our inability onfield to identify what was going wrong, and how to rectify it. Connacht defended by sending three shooters up in a line, yet never once did we chip in behind, making them slow down. Our line out was awful, yet it took 5 line ours before we rectified it by throwing to Two. Lastly, we looked ponderous and uncertain in attack, at times possession looked like a liability- we must work on our skill levels, as they have been poor all year.
I actually believe that the loss of T'eo will be good for us in the long term. For most of the season we have relied on his power to bosh it up, over the gain line. Against the better sides that hasn't worked and we have struggled. He is a very poor passer and his decision as to when to pass and when not to is also poor. Without him we will have to be more skilled and more subtle, maybe become a thinking team.

Lastly, we were well beaten, but I have to say I thought Nigel Owens was dreadful today. He has a habit of making wrong decisions at important times. Today's was the non forward pass, that he called hastily- more than likely cost us a try. The scrum penalty that followed was given as a few of our players said something after watching the replay on the big screen and this was Nigel's petty way of showing who is boss He also ignored a touch judges call of "offside No 5 Green" in a key position in the Connacht 22. Again points at that stage could have made it very interesting. Lastly the breakdown was a shambles. I mean a real shambles. I am all for an open game, but some basic policing of the laws makes for a fairer and more enjoyable contest. Me thinks Nigel us beginning to believe himself to be bigger than the game

For next year, lets up the skill set, increase the consistency of the passion and let's get a world class backs coach to bring us into the new era.