Connacht v Leinster. 1/1/2012, 5:00 p.m.

clanclover,

We lost most of those tight games (if not all) because we didnt have a player on the field with ability to kick goals (penalties and dgs) which hasnt changed even without noc.I agree its not good enuf)

Im not a fan of noc at 10 and have my own issues with ee as manager but u answer your own question/point when u correctly state that when garryowen was launched that team didnt bother to chase it. Thats not down to eric or noc but our back line who have been prone to switching off and being lazy on this issue all season. Therenappears to be a mental frailty within the group which accepts laziness/switching off on occasions within games. you mention one which is often repeated even at home.
U can go further in that game for the missed tackle. Jonny may is fastest player(and most dangerous) in gloucester squad. A fresh well prepped player shud recognise that and nail him on reciept of ball. flavs effort shows that he either didnt know who had ball and/ he had switched off. He was fresh off bench so there were no excuses.
Our games are littered with these type of errors but its very difficult to change this mindset mid season. Ultimately players who make these errors need to be punished by being dropped for a few but squad isnt strong enuf for that atm.
I STILL THINK WE CUD HAVE WON IN SPITE OF THIS WIT A DECENT KICKER.

The Garryowen its self has been a good tactic for us although i agree it is over used. It needs to be done in the right area of the pitch and the chase/hit has to be good. Sometimes noc uses it in wrong area(alot) and too many times chase isnt good enuf. That must be discussed before games and at half time but ee cant go out and make them do it so sometimes they dont.

The starting 10 and team are given game plan/tactics before game by management but its up to 10 to play whats in front of him and adapt to game. Noc has proven to be a poor 10 in this department.
The jury is still out on Jarvis, Heres hoping.

I see and recognise your points rossie. I will disagree on the Garryowen being an effective tactic for us as I believe we get less then 10 per cent of a return. On the kick off up the middle of the park with Duffy in pursuit or Mike I agree it does work but Bar the Quins game and I think the Ospreys we have not used it much this year. If we had a kicker the calibre of McHugh or Warwick we would be better suited even with Keats last year we lost games due to bad kicking. When you have a backline as fast with the mindset to counter attack like Gloucs you do not kick Garryowens. The Garryowen at Gloucs led eventually to the missed tackle. I totally agree about the switching off and laziness some of the players been lauded by the press are actually the biggest culprits and this was again very evident in the Gloucs game. EE picks the team he is the man sending Billy out giving the instructions during stoppages you see him talking on the Mike and you see Billy giving the player the instructions a guy of NOC's experience should as you quite rightly said know when and when not to follow instructions. What I would like to see the players themselves take ownership of what unfolds in front of them, blindside from the scrum/Ruck again on Sunday a glaring opportunity in the second half and we go where all the defenders are waiting. The thing about Galway is the weather is pretty rubbish all year around and the SG been on top of a hill gets it most. But this should be to our kickers advantage as he can train day in and day out in these conditions and should come match time know exactly what is required. When Toulon came to town Johhny Wilko spent two hours kicking goals the morning of the game, do our guys do that I wonder.

clanclover,

I agree that our kickers are not practising enuf on this part of their game in training and the buck stops wit eric on this. Do we have a kicking coach? There is no mention of one on official website. One cud be forgiven for thinking that the home kicker was in blue the other nite so comfortable was nacewa.Did he ever kick here before? prob not and hes 3rd choice kicker in leinster.
He was prob told last mon that he was kicking against us and he worked hard at it all week. What were our lads doing? not practising kicking.

The drop goal attempt is another example of players not thinking on their feet and taking responsibility. We had excellent field position but prob too far out given conditions. The situation required the pack to take on responsibility and pick and go in twos on fringe of ruck and force them back another 10 yds to make opportunity easier. They werent commiting to rucks so opportunity was there but pack or scrum half never saw opportunity to do so or wudnt take on resp to do so.Hence we forced the situation and missed.

We are very predictable to defend against atm. Everytime we bring ball into ruck we move it left or right 10/15m to waiting ball carrier and repeat the process. This allows teams to spread out and que up to tackle. The garryowen has been our only variation on this and has had some success(particularly against Glouc at home).
Our pack is quite formidable when they get their gander up and we have a good lineout and reasonable scrum( wit loughney at th). We are an excellent mauling team on our day and they are all willing ball carriers so why wont they add pick and go at ruck time to their game. Has it been coached out of them? The scrum half should insure that these opportunities and not just go through the motions of flinging ball left and right.
Here like at 10 scrum half and pack must show more responsibilty and play whats in front of them. Nikora was unlucky but the opportunity shud have been easier. It has been mentioned here that they should have gone a few more phases before attempt was made. the way we currently play the game ball wud havve ended up on either touchline and away from posts if that happened.
Imo Nikora knew that and went for it as a result.

Just seen on twitter Grace saying about johnny o'connor #theplayerthatplayswithabrokenface.
thought it was very good way to discribe him lol