Rory O'Connor

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.

He's bringing in, you know, Frawley and Will Connors.

He's got a couple of other signings as well coming along.

So it's not an easy season for him to manage because it's his first year.

He was appointed late.

You know, it's always weird in rugby where you come in and you're almost working with someone else's squad.

Macmillan is dealing with that as well.