Rory O'Connor

So there's like, you know, I can always move back, but that's what he's offering.

To jump back to defence, sorry, I've gone off topic.

The defence has been really, really, like that's been the Achilles heel for Connacht last year.

I think that Ospreys game where they scored, what was it, 41 points and lost by Leinster.

albeit the performance at home and the opening of the stand at the Dexcom Stadium has been big for them as well because they did play all their home games in front of a building site they were good in that home game they could have won that home game potentially that was a different game than some of the other ones if you talk about sliding doors moments in a season Munster Stormers I think was a big one for them Connacht Leinster that bit of vibrancy that they got from the new stand

the going toe-to-toe with Leinster in a bit of a battle I know Bundy took it too far in the aftermath with the referee but there was signs of life within that performance and like they've got good players and they seem to have I know Mac like you know they could do with Mac Hanson and Shane Bolton being fit and they're not going to be so that's that's a big blow but they've got a lot of their best players on the pitch as well

And they've got, like, at the end of the day, they've got a brilliant, proven coach who they seem to have bought into.

And I think a lot of the... There were still grumblings towards the start of the season or when they were kind of in that period when they were losing the games and people were wondering whether Lancaster could get a tune out of players who were not at the same level as, say, you know, the... He's even talked about when you're...

coaching a Leinster academy player, he's largely been through a systems-based approach at, say, Michael's, Black Rock Mary's, and is really, really high level coming in, whereas at Connacht, he's trying to catch these players up, and there's a bit of a project there, and you wonder whether...

Yeah, but I think that is an issue.

And that's why there was a bit of a fear that the level of player didn't match the level of coach.

And Lancaster, having coached England, coached Leinster, Raskin didn't go so well, but might not be able to get a tune.

But it looks like all that work that he's put in, he's been very hands-on.

We're seeing the attack coach, Rob Seab, is leaving at the end of the year.

But I think the work he's put in, absolutely, that just didn't work out and it's not a fit and they've agreed to part company.

But what Lancaster is building now, he's put in a lot of on-pitch work with these players and it didn't always click at the start.

Look, Padelham took three years to win a league, so it was always going to take time with a new coach like that, particularly a Connacht player.

where you're kind of drawn together at different levels of players.

And he's trying to figure out which players he wants to keep, which he's going to leave.

And, you know, there's a couple of kind of big players leaving at the end of this season who've been important for the last couple of years.