New hope for Connacht Rugby?

Former Irish international Conor McGuinness joins Liam Toland on The Business to discuss plans to build the brand and finance Connacht Rugby.

Don't know if there are any Connacht fans on here, but this is great news. New ground improvements going on. HC Participation (Thank you Leinster). IRFU funding and backing for 3 years...

About feicing time.

For so long - Ireland's Development Province. The poor provincial cousin. Mainly for feeding Munster and Leinster, who send their under-ultilised Academy players to grow there.
Only to take them away from them when they mature.

This kills any momentum they ever achieve. But, they need to help themselves as well as ultilising this funding and backing to the max.

Can and should - the other 3 provinces help in any way? Thoughts?

They have a lot of indigenous under-20 players coming through for Ireland now. This is also a sign that they are moving on up. Locally.
Charity starts at home. They must feed this momentum from within. Local Support must grow to fill the coffers. Just to break-even.

The time is ripe. The time is now Connacht.
http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/rabodirectpro12/highlights.html?3004151,3004151,flash,257

Believe.

Connacht Abu!

Gibbo I agree. I think that despite the doom and gloom, Connacht are making huge strides and are pushing onwards.

I think that the other three regions have fairly young players coming through in post positions and that idea of players heading back to Dublin, Munster after cutting their teeth at Connacht is drawing to a close. The only 3 players that I could see them losing to the bigger provinces in the future are Browne, Maguire and O'Donoghue as most provinces seem to have excellent youth players coming through.

There has been a surge in interest in rugby in Connacht, not just at the top level but amongst the grassroots too and the Connacht interpro kiddies team won the tournament outright.

I also think Eric Elwood is absolutely vital. He understands how hard it has been and is a proud Connachtman at heart.

Agree Stag.
Munster, Ulster & Leinster's Academies are producing more than enough to go round and to satiate us. Hopefully this will stop us 3, from using them for our development and from poaching their best local players in the future. That will help their cause.

Also, Elwood is the best thing that has ever happened them. His heart & soul is with Connacht. Now, he needs his Tribe to support him.

Their foreign signings are the key. They will make or break a team. Munster being perfectly honest punched above their weight for quite a while because they had a committed and dedicated bunch of home grown lads supplemented by astute foreign signings. Jim Williams, John Langford, Trevor Halstead and Shaun Payne were all vital to Munster Rugby. None were really key international superstars - a handful of caps each.

Connacht need a guy to shake things up - a Johann Muller, a Rocky Elsom, a John Langford.

Apologies wrong area!!

Naughty prop

Posting a pub comment on a serious intellectual thread.

Sorry wrong page!!

Errm. I'll set Ummm, on ye two!

Back to de Pub with ye!

red_stag wrote:Their foreign signings are the key. They will make or break a team. Munster being perfectly honest punched above their weight for quite a while because they had a committed and dedicated bunch of home grown lads supplemented by astute foreign signings. Jim Williams, John Langford, Trevor Halstead and Shaun Payne were all vital to Munster Rugby. None were really key international superstars - a handful of caps each.

Connacht need a guy to shake things up - a Johann Muller, a Rocky Elsom, a John Langford.

With a reduction in NIQs next year it'll be even more important. Getting the cash to bring Naoupu back was huge for them. The problem will be convincing foreigners of a higher quality to take the plunge and sign.

In terms of bringing youth in, for every Maguire they sign they'll lose a Hagan. So from that perspective the signings of Jarvis and Loxton were smart. These boys have pro contracts and no yearning to return to Munster, Leinster or Ulster. They might move on eventually, but Connacht might find it easier to get them to stay when contract renegotiations start up.

Listened to it, and aiming to increase crowd average from 2000 to 6000, over 3 years is a big increase, moving games around is a good idea, but I notice he didn't say it would be for next season.

Glad Connacht are getting better funded, and key for them is Elwood.

I can see Connacht already changed under him, from bottom of the table, to a solid mid table team now, think they may well have the plans in place to be in a better position in 3 years than the Scottish sides, and Italians, and maybe a Welsh region.

Key for them are the NIQ players, the better they can get the better they will be, a quality NIQ player that can also coach the youth, in a different way than they are used to , will reap benefits, both long and short term.

The problem facing Connacht is that it's so hard for them to reach the H-cup, but in a few years I could see them being in with a shot of winning the Amlin.

Is that new or no?

greybeard wrote:

red_stag wrote:Their foreign signings are the key. They will make or break a team. Munster being perfectly honest punched above their weight for quite a while because they had a committed and dedicated bunch of home grown lads supplemented by astute foreign signings. Jim Williams, John Langford, Trevor Halstead and Shaun Payne were all vital to Munster Rugby. None were really key international superstars - a handful of caps each.

Connacht need a guy to shake things up - a Johann Muller, a Rocky Elsom, a John Langford.

With a reduction in NIQs next year it'll be even more important. Getting the cash to bring Naoupu back was huge for them. The problem will be convincing foreigners of a higher quality to take the plunge and sign.

In terms of bringing youth in, for every Maguire they sign they'll lose a Hagan. So from that perspective the signings of Jarvis and Loxton were smart. These boys have pro contracts and no yearning to return to Munster, Leinster or Ulster. They might move on eventually, but Connacht might find it easier to get them to stay when contract renegotiations start up.

Loxton and Jarvis are both Welsh Qualified players, you do know that don't you ?

They are dual qualified.

has the Jarvis and Loxton debate ever been resolved,

It all rested on if the French union, declared to the IRB that its under 20 team was considered it's 'A' team for a certain game. If they didn't they are available to play for Ireland, if the French did they arn't.

It should be straightforward enough for the IRFU, to request the IRB to check its files if France put this in place. Don't know why its dragged on so long.
In the meantime the IRFU are not counting them as NIQ (as it's unresolved if the are or not) so we shouldn't be counting them as NIQ either.

Connacht's NIQ players should be of the same quality as big George. I think Connacht are allowed and extra 1 or 2 NIQ players more than the other provinces as well.

Ive been trying to find out about the Loxton / Jarvis debate for ages, there has been no news sadly. The IRB was supposed to reslove this.

Someone asked the iRB. Then the iRB fined them $10,000 for asking the question

I hope Fetu'u Vainikolo does well for Connacht. He is the kind of player that people enjoy watching and could pull in a few more punters if he gets much of a chance to attack and show us his abilities.