salmson wrote:

ummm, wrote:
And now we have a war of words brewing with Easterbury who is trying to downplay our one trump card by telling journalists they can do more for young players and that playing time is overrated.

Right, umm, don't think you need to worry about too many players swallowing that (at least the smart talented ones).

We don't need smart ones, we need front rows!

Funk It wrote: This has all become pretty sad. Ezra has as much a right to his comment as we do ours, but as much as Im not a fan, he might have some inside knowledge. Although on face value, it seems like cheap shots

Anything he had to say about Eric and Co should have been said face to face if he had the balls, the fact he's posting this sh*te seven months late on the provinces Facebook page tells you all you need to know about this classy operator. He's a guy who's living on the memories of some promise from six-seven years back and never delivered...

ummm, wrote:
And now we have a war of words brewing with Easterbury who is trying to downplay our one trump card by telling journalists they can do more for young players and that playing time is overrated.

Right, umm, don't think you need to worry about too many players swallowing that (at least the smart talented ones).

Obviously the nine thousand and one training session players like POD fare far better once they leave Leinster on their 29th birthday, as compared to, say, Dave McSharry or Dave Kearney.

:evil:

Recruitment has been bad, but not awful. Considering the position we were put in with all playing contracts expiring at the same time it could have been much worse.

Ya wouldn't be rushing to hear Ezra Taylors views on the Connacht setup but still I'm glad its raised all the same.

After the two HC games there is a break and that time needs to be used for a serious sit down review. We all know the passion Eric has for Connacht and he has achieved legendary status for all he has done for rugby out west. However, its a results based business regardless of what was achieved in a players playing days.

This isn't just about Eric. Its about the whole playing side of things. Issues which need to be addressed:

1) Recruitment and Departures - Never been great but disastrous since Eric took over. We are rarely if ever going to get a player who is the finished article and we have a limited pool to recruit from so no-one is saying anything but that its tough to get every signing right but we need to make sure every decision is well thought out. Some of the signings have been of very poor quality. Our best signings have been the lads we've got on development deals. 4 of our key players have left, even others who did a decent job for us left and are doing well elsewhere. We need to identify who is responsible for the likes of Ah You, Fa'aili, Vainikolo, Taylor etc. These lads are knocking huge chunks out of our budget, the money saved on these lads would be hugely significant for us.

2)Season to date: What have been the positives, why are the results so poor, what can we do to change the results with the present resources at our disposal. how are we going to improve for the rest of the season, performance level etc. Targets for the remainder of the season (vital we become results driven, have to target at least 3 wins before the season is out)

3)Back room staff: How are our present back room staff performing, what input do they have as to the season so far, are we learning from past mistakes? What areas of the back room staff do we need to improve/change.

Other issues obviously as well, recruitment is obviously what most of it reverts back to.

Things have been got right off the pitch through huge effort from all parties and an honest effort to put in the resources and structure to market Connacht a whole lot better than had been done previously but there needs to be a similar results driven mindset for on the field matters. (If Gerry Kelly is going along with the amateur viewpoint of ah we've played well in a lot of the games and we've been unlucky to be on the wrong side of a few tight games and we've shown in the Heineken we can compete sort of nonsense we might as well thrown our hat at it) Connacht are a professional club and we need to regard ourselves as such. We can't be taken seriously until we take ourselves seriously.

This has all become pretty sad. Ezra has as much a right to his comment as we do ours, but as much as Im not a fan, he might have some inside knowledge. Although on face value, it seems like cheap shots

That was really hard to watch. The amount of basic errors being made is scary and surely stems from the total lack of confidence evident in the players. It's a long time since I've seen it so low. There's a real lack of leadership out there too and you'd wonder how much influence Duffy is having as captain in this respect, seeing as he's so far removed from play a lot of the time at full-back. The negativity on social media sites is depressing and now ex-players wading in too? Bad times. A win can't come soon enough but god only knows where we're going to get it.

Agree Seapoint, he spent more time getting barred from nightclubs than putting in shifts for us at the coalface. A gym monkey and a poser.

He also posted this comment on facebook: ''Whose job is it to fill confidence, pride, build team cohesion spirit & Ora? Starts from somewhere & should be maintained from somewhere. I know for a fact players are capable physically, not only are good blokes but but also have what it takes to win!'

Porterbelly wrote: He also tweeted alot of the players and says something along the lines of : 'It's bull, you guys deserve better' and 'blame shouldn't be on you'.

Unfollowed the tw*t ages ago, up his own ass frankly. Total gym bunny focued on showing his great abs rather than showing some cojones on the pitch (which is why he gets injured so consistently and no one gave him a contract when he was relased by us, not even any of the weaker NPC sides). All very well having some skill, but if you don't have the balls for the big hits and heavy traffic you're going to spend your time on the physio couch like him...

He also tweeted alot of the players and says something along the lines of : 'It's bull, you guys deserve better' and 'blame shouldn't be on you'.

Which begs another question. Each coach in Ireland has the same qualifications and has followed the same courses. So why have the other teams got players wetting themselves?

Money.

Leinster players have GPS tracking during sessions and all of their movements and positioning analysed. We have players doing sit ups with logs. They have whole teams of coaches, we have a handful.

And now we have a war of words brewing with Easterbury who is trying to downplay our one trump card by telling journalists they can do more for young players and that playing time is overrated.

clan clover wrote: Totally gutted seeing good players trying their upmost and getting no reward, when the camera panned to EE and Allnut you could see on their faces they had not got a clue what to do, the desperation was obvious and this transmitted to the players on the pitch.

Ezra Taylors comments ring very true, Sean C and Carr have waxed lyrical about the coaching they now receive at Leinster and a few years ago players that made a similar move also made similar comments.

They were talking about specialist coaching they are getting there which Leinster can afford, we have a forwards coach, they have a forwards coach and specialist scrum coach, same with backs....

merchantdon wrote: Connacht Rugby Professional sports team 20,891 like this

Ezra Taylor - The players are all good players & can compete at a top level. They are totally capable of winning for their region. There are diseases at bay..........

3 minutes ago

Folks, this was just posted on connachts facebook page, stuck it in here before it gets chopped. This must be our Ezra from last year, if so it makes some interesting reading!

P.S think he means play rather than bay

Bell end with too much to say for himself frankly. If he'd put in even one decent effort in Green I might pay attention but frankly him bitching about Eric (becasue he was cut in the summer) is pathetic...

Totally gutted seeing good players trying their upmost and getting no reward, when the camera panned to EE and Allnut you could see on their faces they had not got a clue what to do, the desperation was obvious and this transmitted to the players on the pitch.

Ezra Taylors comments ring very true, Sean C and Carr have waxed lyrical about the coaching they now receive at Leinster and a few years ago players that made a similar move also made similar comments.

It's one opinion, and probably one that has some merit. Having said that ET is probably not likely to be all that positive towards the coach that didn't renew his contract.

Greendragon wrote: No need to hand your Season tickets in guys,or do you have short memories ?? we have not been hammered once this season by any of the Rabodirect teams, outplayed sometimes but not hammered. We used to be the whipping boys, that is no longer the case, shipping 30 or 40 points was the norm only a few seasons ago. At least we are in games till the end this season.
quote]

Yes but look back through all the sides we've played this year in the Rabo, only only 2 or 3 occasions have we come up against a first choice or close to first choice 15. Bad as things were a few years ago I'd still have taken us to win at least 2 of the 3 games at home to Cardiff(minus internationals), Ospreys A and a weakened Treviso.

Also to become more competitive we are putting what Eric perceives as our best possible 15 out on the pitch every week. I wasn't an advocate of Bradley's approach a few years back of chucking in the towel before a ball was kicked but much talk as there is about our small squad, there has still been a number in our squad twiddling their thumbs while we flog the same 18/20 players every week.