After last night I'm actually less convinced that Butler will be the man for next season. Was very quiet overall, a few times throughout the match McCartney and Masterson were both talking to the ref instead of him(which some other refs wouldn't have allowed). He was also the back row KK chose to sub which would be unusual for a captain though it was Mul coming on.

I agree - looks like it's Butler's gig for next season especially seeing as his two major rivals for the post are also playing tomorrow (McCartney and Masterson).

Have to say I'm happy with that. Butler is a KK man and hopefully will do a good job of leading the team and inspiring them to play the way KK wants to play next season.

I also agree that he can come across as polite off the field but we don't know what he's like on the field. I very much see him in the mould of a "soft power" leader rather than an AWJ-type, i.e. subtle influencing of the officials.

Butler with the arm band again- there's your captain for next year.

Great with the media, seems well liked, guaranteed starter

Only downside is he seems too polite.......sometimes you need to give just the right amount of attitude to the ref, see AWJ last week for an example of how that should be done right.

Bazzo wrote: Lots of people, myself included, think that having a back 3 as a captain is a bad idea as they often end up jogging half way up the pitch to discuss things with the ref while the opposition captain is in their ear all the time.

Hear, hear. I firmly believe we'd have squeezed another year out of Duffy if we hadn't made him do semi-infinite numbers of shuttle sprints up and down the pitch just to get ignored by refs.

columoc wrote: No one has mentioned Tiernan. He is one of the senior players and has matured well.

I am a fan of backs as captain as they can see a wider picture, harder in the rough and tumble of the pack.

Lots of people, myself included, think that having a back 3 as a captain is a bad idea as they often end up jogging half way up the pitch to discuss things with the ref while the opposition captain is in their ear all the time.

No one has mentioned Tiernan. He is one of the senior players and has matured well.

I am a fan of backs as captain as they can see a wider picture, harder in the rough and tumble of the pack.

No natural successor to Muldoon in the current squad - Fact

I'm backing Eddie

Buckley would get my vote

I'm looking at all the opinions on who our new captain should be and the results are IMO , thoughts for the sake of them and half hearted ( and I mean no disrespect I've read all of your posts and there's no Dobby amongst you ) BUT ... the season has been a shambles none of our current players ,for now are any near what I would regard as Captain material for the new season , at this moment , for any new captain , it would be like trying to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic ! No chance ! Until we get our Mojo back and start and start playing again I suggest the most dedicated and committed of our matchday starters ........Eddie the Eagle .

I really don't think we have a current player who is a standout candidate for captain.
Maybe there's somebody on the way in who could but we really haven't a clue what's gonna happen there.
Our defence is a shambles most of the time and that's down to the guys on the pitch I think. When we have Mul and Butler together along with Bundee and Marmion we are a different team. We can defend and attack very well. That's the 4 leaders. 1 is going and 2 are internationals who we lose to the Irish setup and that leaves Butler.
He gets my vote.

I think we can all agree that there is no stand out candidate in the current Connacht squad...which makes my initial suggestion of Copeland not as mad as it seems.

Maybe Keane has somebody up his sleeve. We haven't had any new forward signings (except for Copeland) so a Craig Clarke signing might be in the offing.

Whoever it is it's crucial that they don't allow the tripe that we saw in the last 15 mins against Ospreys to happen again.

In regards to Front rows not being suitable due to being usually only 60 min players, 3 of the 6 nations teams are led from the front row, and Scotland and Italy have had Ford and Ghiraldini in the past, so I see no obstacle there. But realistically we don't have any standout leaders at all, no obvious successor like POM to POC or Henderson to Best. We're losing something massive in losing Mul, in the past when you compared the 4 provincial captains you always knew we were on at least a par in that category. He was a leader that other teams respected, now you think there's no player that other teams will be thinking "oh ya, he's playing today, we're in for a tough one".

Whoever we go for it'll be a step down, which is a poor reflection on the team. All the top sides in the league have multiple big leader, Owens/Barclay/Davies/Halfpenny at Scarlets Gray/Wilson/Pyrgos/Harley at Glasgow Nel/Ford/Watson/McKenzie/Bennett at Edinburgh and we all know of the leaders in the teams through the other provinces. Given that the team doesn't appear to be primarily led by the coach in the same way as we had with Lam or Elwood makes an on field even more important. Personally I'm not overly keen on someone coming in and being made captain straight away, but if someone of the stature of Craig Clarke comes in then I could get behind it, hopefully it would go a little better than it did back then though.

Sean O’Brien is a funny one. Captained Galwegians from minis all the way up, captained Roscrea SCT, Ireland u18s and u20s. However I can’t remember him ever captaining the Eagles, which would have been the logical next step, and I can’t say I’ve seen obvious signs of leadership from him on the senior team from the sidelines.

Agree with the comments above, really think we lack leadership, which is the main reason I’ve been spouting about signing a Johann Muller type lock since forever.

Personally, apart from maybe Butler or Copeland, I can't really see anybody in our current squad as an ideal candidate for many of the stated reasons like not being a guaranteed starter, not an 80 min. player ect. But most of all the biggest fear I have is that when Mul hasn't been on the field this season, nobody else ever came close to putting their hand up as likely captain material. I'm sure that blame for the shambles that has been our season so far can be equally shared among players, coaches and the organisation generally. But the one thing above all that has shocked me is the lack of leadership, communication and genuine heart this season. Do we really believe players like Sexton, Best or O'Mahony to name but a few would ever have allowed the rubbish we've witnessed time and again this season to ever pass as acceptable. We need a guy in the mould of Alun Wyn Jones or Paul O'Connell if we are ever to progress and get back to where we were two years ago so my suspicion, borne more out of hope than expectation is that we haven't yet signed our captain for next season

Love Bundee as a player but not as captain. Too emotional at times, you'd want your captain to be levelheaded at all times when dealing with the refs. Second Salmson on ruling out TOH as fullback is just too far from the action. Was throwing around Buckley myself, but as S_P mentioned in this day and age how many front rowers see out the full 80. You'd want your leader out there for the final 15-20 minutes of most games. It's probably easier to discount players for one reason or another. ATM, I would consider Butler, Marmion or possibly one of the second row if they could prove durable enough from a health standpoint.

Edit: After Phatguerilla's pitch for Denis, had a quick look at his playing time in the league this year. He's averaged about 70 minutes per game going the full 80 in 5 of the 13 he was involved in.