Matts gone

[olaf the fat]

Anyone else think Franno's piece was bshit at best?

Fixed to a reoccurring post

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Interesting to note that several of Leinsters senior players had approached MOC mid season and told him he wasn't tough enough; and that MOC had previously been told that he wasn't bringing through the junior players.

As a matter of interest, did you copy that from another forum?

About 6 posts down here: http://forum.planetrugby.com/viewtopic. ... art=168640

Ahem.

Sorry for being a dick but just think it's wrong to copy someone else's work and pass it off as your own, if that is indeed what happened.

I won't mention it after this, but in future I would avoid doing it.

[johng]

Perhaps he is both posters and used the same line twice? Not a sin. But also not something he may want to acknowledge.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Certainly possible, which is why I asked for the clarification. From being on here a lot and lurking fairly regularly on PR though, I would think it very very unlikely.

[johng]

Certainly possible, which is why I asked for the clarification. From being on here a lot and lurking fairly regularly on PR though, I would think it very very unlikely.

I dunno. I rarely if ever read PR. But some lad had a go at the poster for constantly harping on about his issues with MOC and having an ''as usual I was right'' attitude.

[cormac]

Certainly possible, which is why I asked for the clarification. From being on here a lot and lurking fairly regularly on PR though, I would think it very very unlikely.

It's taken from one of the Sunday papers. Can't remember if it was the Brendan Fanning article in the Sindo or the Peter O'Reilly piece in the ST.

[goreyguy]

Certainly possible, which is why I asked for the clarification. From being on here a lot and lurking fairly regularly on PR though, I would think it very very unlikely.

It's taken from one of the Sunday papers. Can't remember if it was the Brendan Fanning article in the Sindo or the Peter O'Reilly piece in the ST.

Fanning, it was summation of some of his article. hardly intellectual property but I shouldnt have been so lazy and just written it in my own words.

On another note O'Reilly rubbished the idea that this was mutual and MOC was essentially sacked.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

The story was, but not that wording.

[Oldschool]

Final thoughts on this.
One of Nucifora's primary roles is future squad, development. MOC locked horns with him on this, exit MOC.
And perhaps that's where Tony and the Cordites should have been performing.

[simonokeeffe]

Final thoughts on this.
One of Nucifora's primary roles is future squad, development. MOC locked horns with him on this, exit MOC.
And perhaps that's where Tony and the Cordites should have been performing.

Nucifora has a point on this, and so does the board: if theyre spending all this time, money and resources on the academy and instead of Hudson, SCM, Byrne, Kelleher etc getting a go hes bringing in an expired Tuqiri and AIL wingers

[LeRouxIsPHat]

This has been discussed before but it was such a bizarre situation to keep picking experienced guys when they weren't performing. If MOC could point to brilliant performances and wining rugby then he could say "I'm not going to change it when things are going so well"...but they weren't, so what was he afraid of? Hope he learns from it going forward, hard to know if he can change though.

[olaf the fat]

This has been discussed before but it was such a bizarre situation to keep picking experienced guys when they weren't performing. If MOC could point to brilliant performances and wining rugby then he could say "I'm not going to change it when things are going so well"...but they weren't, so what was he afraid of? Hope he learns from it going forward, hard to know if he can change though.

I think its the opposite, if things were going well players could be introduced. He was under pressure and continually went to the wrong guys.

[OTT]

I think he came a bit unstuck by the games he targeted as well early in the season. I think it was an obvious strategy and if we had of got the results then there would have been more room to play around later in the season.

First up away to Glasgow a match that is always ugly and one we have historically had mixed results in, we stacked up our team especially the pack (including Healy, Cronin, Ross, McCarthy, Jenno, SOB). We are notorious slow starters (the previous season 2013/14 being an exception) and he gambled on putting out a very good team against a side who are always excellent at home, we lost by 2pts but nearly won (although we could have lost by 20+).

Next was Connacht away another game that is usually a dogged affair that can go either way. we stacked up the pack again (including Jack Mc, Cronin, Ross, Toner, McCarthy, Ruddock, Jamie). We lost by a point.

Munster home 23-34 not much need for any explanation they beat us up we were missing Healy, SOB and Rob was benching but mostly a full team other then that.

Munster away at the end of Dec another match that we often come out on the wrong side of the result. We had to go after this game because of the result at home to them in Lansdowne. We put out an excellent team on paper (including Luke, Zane, Darce, Dave Kearney, Madigan, Boss, Strauss, McCarthy, Douglas, Jenno) and got blown away by a second string Munster, it was shambolic stuff from such an experienced team.

If we win three of those four the second half of the season looks much brighter or if we lose them but have not stacked our team with our Irish Internationals then we have something to show for it.

He nearly got 2 of the 4 results but coming away with all 4 losses put us on a hiding to nothing for later on in the season when our squad would become stretched and under pressure in every game to get the result. Maybe he targeted the wrong games but the performances in those games should have been better with what teams we picked.

[Raydollard]

Stop the excuses and blaming the players. O'Connor takes full responsibility. He could not manage the team and did not have the qualities required of a good manager. He was hopeless and fully deserved to get the boot.

[Peg Leg]

Stop the excuses and blaming the players. O'Connor takes full responsibility. He could not manage the team and did not have the qualities required of a good manager. He was hopeless and fully deserved to get the boot.

There has to be accountability there too though Ray.
MOC introduced a "player lead environment" and no-one really stood up to lead, probably barring Heaslip. Freedom of expression doesn't seem to work for the players and they couldn't play there way out of the situation they were in, even with the experience they have.

[goreyguy]

MOC is famously great friends with the players, think that makes it hard to start dropping them. Too much friend not enough boss.

[Kinger83]

Schmidt's comments on MOC's departure from today's press meeting.

http://www.the42.ie/joe-schmidt-matt-oc ... 5-May2015/

[curates_egg]

Schmidt saying (obviously) that he had no role in it but not saying he was surprised in any way and standing over the Nucifora presser.

[artaneboy]

Stop the excuses and blaming the players. O'Connor takes full responsibility. He could not manage the team and did not have the qualities required of a good manager. He was hopeless and fully deserved to get the boot.

Utter rubbish. All involved take some of the responsibility. As has been pointed out recently, it wasn't Matt out throwing that risky pass for Toulon interception try. That cost us a final place- and possibly given Clermont's now proven tendency to choke, a ERCC win. Your guy, Ian Madigan- threw that pass. Was MOC wrong to pick him for that game?

There's plenty of blame to go round for all involved- from Mick Dawson down to the rawest squad member that was involved. Matt takes his share- but to try and say he was the only cause of us failing to perform is the type of delusional scape-goating that this thread has descended into. Matt O'Connor made mistakes- but the evidence is there from Joe's last season that the bloom had faded on our great team and their era.

[OTT]

Two peas in a pod.