Murray Kinsella has it that TOH has been cited for contact with Jeff Hassler's eyes in the Ospreys match:

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wp_rathead wrote:

Borders no.2 wrote: Players In 2016/17
Eoin Griffin from London Irish
Conor Carey from Nottingham
Mornitz Boshoff from South Africa Lions
Cian Kelleher from Leinster
Dominic Robertson-McCoy from Northland
Josh Rowland from Ireland Sevens
Lewis Stevenson from Exeter Chiefs
Stacey Ili from Auckland
James Cannon from Wasps
Ivan Soroka from Clontarf
Naulia Dawai from Otago
John Andress from Munster
Tom Farrell from Bedford Blues
Steve Crosbie from Munster
Peter McCabe from Munster

Players Out 2016/17
Rodney Ah You to Ulster
Robbie Henshaw to Leinster
AJ MacGinty to Sale Sharks
Aly Muldowney to Grenoble
Api Pewhairangi to England London Broncos
George Naoupu to Harlequins
Jason Harris-Wright to London Irish
Ian Porter to Banbridge
Fionn Carr to Naas
Conor Finn to Buccaneers
Dave McSharry retired
Nathan White retired

Great post

Just compare and contrast the recruitment of the Scarlets team from their winning season:

Players In
Paul Asquith from Greater Sydney Rams
Tom Prydie from Dragons
Geraint Rhys Jones from Dragons
Tom Grabham from Ospreys
Morgan Williams from Wales Sevens
Leigh Halfpenny from Toulon
Steve Cummins from Melbourne Rebels

Players Out
Wales Liam Williams to Saracens
D. T. H. van der Merwe to Newcastle Falcons
Peter Edwards to Merthyr
Richard Smith to Neath
Aled Thomas retired
Morgan Allen to Bedwas
Gareth Owen to Leicester Tigers
Matthew Owen to Carmarthen Quins
Rynier Bernardo to Cheetahs

Scarlets lose players like DTH and Liam Williams but replace them with calibre of Leigh Halfpenny, Asquith and Prydie
We simply didn't do that unfortunately

And despite loosing Tadgh Beirne through no fault of their own, they've already signed Uzair Cassiem and Clayton blommetjies from the Cheetahs, two top quality signings. Meanwhile we offer contract extensions to Griffin and Ronaldson (Two players who clearly are not good enough) and let go Denis Coulson, a guy who showed lots of potential anytime he played. I'd love to see us sign Ox Nche to fill Coulson's spot but it'll probably never happen.

I don't think he had a bad game or was the reason we lost, but I had no idea the Ben Whitehouse and Dan Bigger were so close. Ben Whitehouse is from Swansea and was in Dan biggars groom's party at his wedding.....the optics of him reffing an ospreys game where biggar gets man of the match are not great.

No more so than Frank Murphy reffing us tbf but something the league should look at.

Borders no.2 wrote: Players In 2016/17
Eoin Griffin from London Irish
Conor Carey from Nottingham
Mornitz Boshoff from South Africa Lions
Cian Kelleher from Leinster
Dominic Robertson-McCoy from Northland
Josh Rowland from Ireland Sevens
Lewis Stevenson from Exeter Chiefs
Stacey Ili from Auckland
James Cannon from Wasps
Ivan Soroka from Clontarf
Naulia Dawai from Otago
John Andress from Munster
Tom Farrell from Bedford Blues
Steve Crosbie from Munster
Peter McCabe from Munster

Players Out 2016/17
Rodney Ah You to Ulster
Robbie Henshaw to Leinster
AJ MacGinty to Sale Sharks
Aly Muldowney to Grenoble
Api Pewhairangi to England London Broncos
George Naoupu to Harlequins
Jason Harris-Wright to London Irish
Ian Porter to Banbridge
Fionn Carr to Naas
Conor Finn to Buccaneers
Dave McSharry retired
Nathan White retired

Great post

Just compare and contrast the recruitment of the Scarlets team from their winning season:

Players In
Paul Asquith from Greater Sydney Rams
Tom Prydie from Dragons
Geraint Rhys Jones from Dragons
Tom Grabham from Ospreys
Morgan Williams from Wales Sevens
Leigh Halfpenny from Toulon
Steve Cummins from Melbourne Rebels

Players Out
Wales Liam Williams to Saracens
D. T. H. van der Merwe to Newcastle Falcons
Peter Edwards to Merthyr
Richard Smith to Neath
Aled Thomas retired
Morgan Allen to Bedwas
Gareth Owen to Leicester Tigers
Matthew Owen to Carmarthen Quins
Rynier Bernardo to Cheetahs

Scarlets lose players like DTH and Liam Williams but replace them with calibre of Leigh Halfpenny, Asquith and Prydie
We simply didn't do that unfortunately

Honestly I think what is really frustrating is that under Lam we'd have guys like Shane O'Leary, Delahunt, Connolly, Robb, Parata coming into the team for big games mostly down to injuries and we'd be pleasantly surprised by the quality of performance they were putting in. However, now even the more established players are leaving a lot to be desired, our defensive shape and handling has been poor almost all season, we had seemed to improve that before Christmas but it's worse than ever now.

Every time we make some gains, like we improve defence and attack suffers, or vice versa. At least under Lam even at the start we were seeing incremental improvements around the park. At the minute our good players (and I do believe most are still good enough) are looking average. We've pulled off one or two good performances all season in all reality, the home wins again Munster and Ulster and the away loss to Leinster. The rest of our performances have been patchy or indifferent, even some of the big wins in the Challenge cup really count for very little and I think now probably papered over some of the cracks by giving a little bit of a good feeling to the season.

I think more than a few new faces coming into the squad there needs to be an attitude change for next season, because we've seen a few games this year where we've gone behind to opposition we should be beating and never looked like coming back, then there were a few games where we lost by small margins but threw it away ourselves. I think I could be more positive if things had seemed to get better as the year moved on but in reality we've gotten worse since Christmas when we were probably in our best form of the season. Before we totally forget about this season let's at least try to shown some pride and go out and give Glasgow and Leinster a game of it, I could accept defeat but it needs to be an improved attitude to what we seen last night.

Great post. Sums it up.

First off as a fan I was struggling to find any enthusiasm for the match last night. Mentally I think everyone switched their attention to the season ending after last weekend and when you gift the opposition a 13 point start away from home it's always going to end badly. We've had countless end of season matches like this away from home over the years.

Honestly though the problem goes back to the recruitment for the season after winning the Pro 12. We didn't push on. I remember someone writing after winning the Pro 12 that now was a once off opportunity to cement our place as a big team by going out and making a couple of big signings and they were right. However, we didn't make a statement of intent. Boshoff was an expensive failure unfortunately for a number of reasons but apart from that we didn't make any big signing despite the fact that we lost numerous key players the same summer.

I'm not going to be mean and go through who was a hit and miss on the below list but to me if I was picking a best Connacht 23 at the moment only 2 players from that list would get in to that 23.

Similarly we have let our coaching team be decimated. From having a real strong background coaching structure we just don't have that anymore. As much as losing Pat Lam was huge, losing Andre Bell and Dave Ellis was equally a blow from which we don't look to have recovered.

Players In 2016/17
Eoin Griffin from London Irish
Conor Carey from Nottingham
Mornitz Boshoff from South Africa Lions
Cian Kelleher from Leinster
Dominic Robertson-McCoy from Northland
Josh Rowland from Ireland Sevens
Lewis Stevenson from Exeter Chiefs
Stacey Ili from Auckland
James Cannon from Wasps
Ivan Soroka from Clontarf
Naulia Dawai from Otago
John Andress from Munster
Tom Farrell from Bedford Blues
Steve Crosbie from Munster
Peter McCabe from Munster

Players Out 2016/17
Rodney Ah You to Ulster
Robbie Henshaw to Leinster
AJ MacGinty to Sale Sharks
Aly Muldowney to Grenoble
Api Pewhairangi to England London Broncos
George Naoupu to Harlequins
Jason Harris-Wright to London Irish
Ian Porter to Banbridge
Fionn Carr to Naas
Conor Finn to Buccaneers
Dave McSharry retired
Nathan White retired

Of this season's signings only Butler has made any kind of impact really. Coulson I thought had done ok but he's off again. We are getting weaker on an off the park each season while everyone else is improving their squad.

Add to that the fact that our returns from the academy are diminishing every year and it's not adding up to a good situation.

Kieran Keane walked into a tough situation and when we made a bad start to a favourable set of fixtures at the start of the league it was always going to be an uphill struggle but I haven't really seen any indication of where he's trying to bring this team to. Asking the players to take more ownership is all good and well but look at the list of players we've lost in the last couple of seasons or are about to lose and the number of leaders in this team looks very small.

I honestly don't see who you could place as captain next season, Tom McCartney would have been a shoo in for me a couple of years back but his form has fallen off a cliff. I don't see too many more leaders in the pack at the moment being honest.

For me ideally a coach should get 3 years before you can properly judge but season 1 has been such a disaster I think the pressure has to be on Keane to improve things significantly next season.

Behind the scenes I'm worried too though, we have been diabolical this season but our support base has built significantly in the last couple of years and attendances have stayed reasonably strong. We risk losing all that if we've another season or two like this. After the Pro12 victory we heard great plans for stadium expansion or new stadium and so forth but we've made zero real progress in improving our facilities since the Clan Stand went up yet we are expecting a lot of floating supporters who we could win over to pay good money to stand behind the goals in the wind and rain to watch us losing.

We're bottom of the pile as far as the IRFU is concerned and taking emotion out of it they are right to have us as lowest priority as we'll generate the least money for them so we need to be able to generate our own income. I don't know that ins and outs of the job and I don't envy the job the lads have to do to keep the show on the road but honestly I don't see the leadership behind the scenes to make Connacht into a competitive force.

Onion brew wrote: I think some bloke called Botún Eile should have won Man of the Match tonight. He was certainly mentioned often enough on TG4. Feel really sorry for anyone who travelled over for that game.

Could have as easily gone to Botun Uafasach or to Cionntach instead.

Don't believe I have seen anyone calling for KK's head.......just yet. However, with the rubbish he is serving us up these day, I think every manager has to be challenged & questioned. As fans, we'd be failing the club if we didn't do that considering how absolutely shambolic Connacht now are. Abismal.

I'd give him another season for sure but if this is what he give us next season, then he HAS TO go!!!

Like everyone I was disappointed watching the game last night but I'd imagine people calling for kks head are the same one who were looking for Lam's. There is the makings of a good team there and we all know it but there are some areas that need addressing via recruitment, some of which have already happened (more choice at 10 and center) and some of which I hope happen (we need more ballast in the forwards, our pack is competitive but undersized).

Despite the drubbing there were some positives, I thought both delahunt and Robb showed up well. My biggest concern is our defence, sometimes our attacking play looks disjointed but when it clicks it looks very good, but on the other side of the ball we always look soft. If teams get into our 22 they know they can just pick and drive for a few phases then we're wide open out wide. The Ulster game is the last time I really remember us winning collisions and rugby is a bloody tough game to play going backwards.

Weve lost pretty much every close game we've been in this year so we're not as far away from being competitive as the league table suggests.

The next two games need to be used to prepare for next season, I want to see McCabe get some more game time and particularly Mitchell, why have we not seen more of him?!?

Sometimes you need to take a backwards step to push forward so let's hope that's what this year is, roll on next season!

I've always tried to adopt a ' glass is half full approach ' with Connacht but really that was awful . There is a crew of us in an App group ,all season tickets holders. The usual banter during a game. As the match \car crash went on the annoyance followed by blaming the ref (totally unfounded)to anger and the worst of it all .... apathy!! This is the saddest I have ever felt as a supporter I also felt apathetic and that has never happened ....crushed

I think some bloke called Botún Eile should have won Man of the Match tonight. He was certainly mentioned often enough on TG4. Feel really sorry for anyone who travelled over for that game.

More of the same. Shambles.

The team has lacked cohesion all season, that was always unlikely to change tonight but the acceptance of defeat was disappointing.

It is worrying but you hope / assume KK has taken a scalpel to the squad and is getting the players required to play his game plan.

For me the team is brainless (for lack of a better word). They are struggling badly with KKs heads up rugby. Despite the simalrities to lams formation they appeared much more comfortable under his more structured game plan where decision making was more limited. We can only judge KK when he gets his players in as it seems a lot of the current crop struggle with this style.

Happy for Robb, the only positive from tonight. He stands alone with his physicality. Our back row is talented but massively underpowered. Reinfornents needed. Feel sorry for carty, he is a good player but... Need a kicker and additional help at 10 so ronaldson can concentrate on 12.

Live in hope

Tonight was the game that broke the camel's back. I've been patient all season, giving KK as much leeway as possible in his first season, but watching an Ospreys team in turmoil earlier in the season turn over our boys with ease was too much. I hate to pick on players but Griffin had an absolute shocker. Where do we go from here? In terms of recruitment, would any player really want to join us? We are so off the Champions Cup pace it's depressing.

Mark Mostyn wrote: I think this is the most upset I’ve ever been by a Connacht game. I don’t even know why, I’ve been there for home defeats against the Borders, worse hammerings and more important losses. This is just crushing. I don’t even care about Europe, we would be beaten out the gate if we went into the Champions Cup as 4th seeds.

The pain of knowing/seeing how good this team can play versus in the past it was more expected to lose like this? As for Europe, definitely a blessing not to be in the Champions cup at this point.

Before anyone starts later, the ref had absolutely no bearing on this loss, he gave us lots tonight and was actually very reasonable - went to TMO for the knock on in first half when told by assistant, took Buckley's comments about the scrum on board and went around to ref that side, thought he was as fair and thorough as I've seen a ref in a long time.

He wasn't the one knocking on balls with minimal pressure or throwing at least three lineouts past the tail. He wasn't responsible for the poor defensive shape, lack of communication, haphazard rucking ... god I could go on on and on. Some people are annoyed lately that our attack is blunt which it is but you need to build the attack on the basics of good line speed, ball retention, minimizing mistakes - attack is not where the main problem lies right now.

That was a shocking performance, I know the coaches are trying to build something but either the game plan isn't good enough or the players don't understand it / can't do it. Either way serious questions have to be asked.
Before this season started I was optimistic, I can't say that ahead of next season, which I think will be one the most important they'll have. If we compete well then we're building something, if not then we'll have squandered the success of 2016.