Connacht Signing Announcments - 2012-13

Someone mentioned before about giving Ah You a go at LH and I'd be up for that just to see how he does. Glad Buckley is getting a start this wknd it'll do his confidence good.

Make him a hooker !!

PARKS will be signing a two year deal in a few days it will be this week.

him and white are great news for next season, dont think anyone else would be coming in unless one or two from ail or rejects from munster leinster ulster

2 years for a player his age seems like a lot but I suppose you have to give an incentive to come. Would like to see a center coming in as well though. McSharry, Tonetti and Griffin are good but not gone on Henry. Still he's alot better than he was at the start of the season.

Poor aul Henry gets a lot of stick. Still, a group of centres of Griffen, Tonetti, McSharry and Henry are much better in terms of options compared to Matthews, Ta'auso, Nathan and Griffen as our top 4 last year.

At one point last year Keatley got a start at 13 we had so few options for centres. Only Matthews from last year could push this years group for playing time.

When Henry is your 4th choice and you know he'll still go and do a job you're doing ok I reckon.

We were a much more competitive team in the second year of the Keatley/Carr/Cronin/Hagan era, thanks to a more settled squad. I'm hoping for more of the same next year. As few changes as possible, no like for like swaps unless entirely unavoidable and a focus on small tweaks to improve, not stay afloat.

From that perspective if Parks can get our points average up that's all I'll ask of him.

We're scoring 14 points a game. Last year we averaged 18. That average alone would give us a for/against ratio more or less breaking even, so we're close. We have as many losing bonuses now as we did by the end of last year. We need to remain stable so we can turn those into wins. Those missing 3 try bonus points would have us just one point behind Treviso for the 8th place on the table.

We desperately need to improve our attacking overall. Last year we had 3 try bonus victories. This year we've had none at all. But is looks very similar to two seasons ago, so it's a good omen for next year.

are them stats in the league only as there is big difference between amlin and heineken.

with a try average so low that is why we need a very good kicking out half.

Pro12 only

Cardiff Blues SC ‏ @CardiffBluesSC Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Waiting for official confirmation that Dan Parks has signed a 2 year deal with #Connacht - another day, another player leaves #cardiffblues

rugby agent

Jason Smith ‏ @JasonSmith_1 Reply Retweeted Favorite · Open
Dan Parks signs for Connaght. Bit of a statement by IRFU. Just reward.

Yeah Rob Murphy said in his commentary on Friday night that we were expecting to announce the signing of a "*major" 10 this week. (*I'm 99% certain he used the word major)

Have to say I am not overly sold on the idea. The only real reason being that we have invested so much faith and time into NOC this season and now we appear to be harvesting the benefits of it, my concern is that when NOC goes onto the bench for next season are we not risking undoing a lot of the good work that has been put in this year.

Hopefully though the signing of Parks will add to NOC's development rather than hinder it but i think gametime maketh the player as opposed to observation. The few times I have watched Keats kicking for Munster or Wolfhounds this year he seems to me to have gone back a year or 2 IMO.

Why was the points per game average so high in 08/09 at 25pts. I see the try average was lower than this season at 1.11 per game. i can only assume that we had a very handy kicker?

If thats the case Parks will be a very welcome addition. By all accounts he is a model pro and Noc is a very dedicated trainer so it could be a very good match. They also are similar in style so should share the position well. I would invisage a 50/30 split in game time which is more than keats gets in munster so noc obvious improvements should continue.

Good news, Parks should be a good addition for us. NOC has improved but still our game plan when he's at 10 is extremely limited.

Parks will gives us what we have strived for over the years real options at key junctures in games and international experience to help steer the ship home in some tight matches.

NOC still has a lot to do to become a rounded 10, Jarvis has potential but is a rough diamond lots to work on but he has time. I wouldn't be surprised if Nikora slipped away from the final year of his contract and tried to get rugby elsewhere for next season. The likes of Leader and Carty can only really benefit from Parks being here and by the time Parks contract is up we should have plenty of options at out half.

Good to see we have acted on 2 problem areas. Still plenty to do. A quality scrum half like Stringer would really get me believing.

NOC still as 6 games to prove Parks shouldn't expect to walk in and be handed the 10 jersey straight off. He has started to show improvement, but he's about 3 months behind schedule as far as I'm concerned. If he helps the team to win 4 of their last 6 games I think he will have earned the right to challenge Parks for the starting spot. Ideally, Parks would play ROG to NOC's Sexton, coming on with 10-15 minutes left to close out games or when a dg could decide things. The Edinburgh game was a good example for me. Was very nervous to hear Jarvis was coming on given his kicking record and the game so close. It ended up working out well with him landing his two kicks, but the nerves would have been a lot steadier had it been Parks coming off the bench.

I think Jarvis coming on to close out the game the other night must have given him a huge confidence boost.He could learn a whole lot from Parks in the kicking department.

From the Indo, by John Fallon,

CONNACHT have made a sensational swoop for Celtic League record points-scorer Dan Parks.

The former Scotland out-half will complete his move to the Sportsground on a two-year deal this week as coach Eric Elwood strengthens his squad for next season.

Australian-born Parks (33), who has amassed 1,322 points in nine seasons in the Celtic League with Glasgow Warriors and Cardiff Blues, retired from Test rugby following Scotland's Six Nations loss to England, having won 67 caps for his adopted country.

The only other Scottish international to play for Connacht was No 8 Eric Peters, who moved there 10 years ago.

Parks briefly played for Leeds Tykes in the English Premiership before moving to Glasgow; he has notched 537 points in 10 seasons of Heineken Cup rugby.

The 33-year-old, who has spent the past two seasons with Cardiff, is the second major signing for Connacht in the past week, with Kiwi prop Nathan White joining from Leinster for three years from the summer.

Meanwhile, one of the players Parks will be competing with for the No 10 shirt next season, Niall O'Connor, has been ruled out of Friday's trip to the Scarlets, suffering a hairline fracture after a knock to the head in the 26-13 win over Edinburgh at the weekend.

"He has had a scan and we will be keeping a close eye on him during the week but he is out of Friday's game and we will just need to assess him from there," said Elwood.

Brett Wilkinson and Mike McCarthy also look set to miss the trip to Llanelli after being called in to train with the Irish squad this week.

Prop Ronan Loughney will also train with the Irish squad today but is expected to be available to play for Connacht on Friday.

- John Fallon

I've kept away from the Parks debate until there was a definite announcement. We were all burned by the Benson Stanley saga last year.

Overall I think it's a positive, but not without some points to debate.

Our kicking percentage failings are well documented at this stage and that alone means we have upgraded the position. We are not getting an out half known for getting his outside backs moving, though, and our young talent could suffer as a result. If we're not scoring tries there will be no conversions to be missed!

Having said that, we play a fairly kick-reliant game already. Someone who can pin a team back allowing us to play them in their half will be a good thing.

Defensively he's not the best, but not the worst either. We have the 6th best "Points Against" this year, ahead of Ulster and Cardiff. This is a major strength and will need to be maintained next year. If we suddenly start having problems with teams targetting our 10 channel this will not be good.

Overall though I see this as a positive. It's a sign of intent. We have a man on our books who only a few weeks ago was considered good enough for international duty. You can debate the rights and wrongs of that selection all you like, but the fact remains. This is an upgrade. Maybe not the big upgrade people wanted, but it's a strong step in the right direction. We were never going to land Dan Carter, now were we?

Allegedly Leinster are trying to sign Vereniki Goneva a fijian winger which means that Carr might be on the way out. I for one would love to have him back. With him on one wing and O'Halloran on the other we'd have one hell of an attacking force.