Connacht return to URC action on Friday in a healthy space, having given key players a rest during European fare, while providing youngsters with valuable playing time.
Three wins on the trot contrast with Friday’s visitors to the Sportsground, but head coach Pete Wilkins is not underestimating Ulster despite their three successive defeats.
“There’s certainly no complacency from our end,” Wilkins says. “There’s a confidence that if we get our bit right, we think that is good enough to win the contest. But at the same time, we’ve got to apply the same kind of pressure or apply pressure in a different way, but as effectively, as those three teams did against Ulster previously.”
Wilkins says the Connacht management has spoken to the players to put Ulster’s results into “context”.
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“We need to discuss the context of the last few weeks, and in terms of not just how the results have gone for them, but how those games have ebbed and flowed. And you know, there’s obviously been a fair amount of narrative around things off the field as well that have added to their story these last three games.
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“The other thing to recognise is they’ve been playing three really good teams in Leinster, Sale and La Rochelle. They’ve been up against some pretty tough opposition, and we need to acknowledge that.”
While Connacht used the Challenge Cup to give youngsters an opportunity, several more established players are expected to return.
“We’ve got some returning internationals who have thankfully been able to freshen up and get ready for this,” he says. However, there are some players who are “now in the conversation for selection”.
“You look at the guys like Seamus Hurley-Langton. I thought Ciaran Booth did brilliantly off the bench and he got more minutes than probably expected. Oisín Dowling, moving to six against Brive, Dave Hawkshaw at 10, Colm Reilly did a brilliant job at nine coming off the bench for 14 minutes. So it’s not just that those guys have proved they are up to the task, they’re actually now actively in that conversation.
“It is going to be really interesting over these next few weeks, and interesting to see how the more established guys respond to that pressure as well.”
The injuries to Gavin Thornbury and Paul Boyle in Connacht’s bonus-point win over Brive could provide those opportunities.
Lock Thornbury underwent surgery yesterday in Dublin for a probable tendon injury in the knee. The full details of the prognosis is unknown, but this serious injury could sideline the former Blackrock College player for many months.
On the plus side Mack Hansen is expected to be available for selection pending training this week, while other likely team choices include Finlay Bealham, John Porch, and Jack Carty.
Dan McFarland’s Ulster return to Galway without Rob Herring (rib) and Billy Burns (concussion) after three defeats on the trot - their two European losses expected to prompt a response in Galway.
“Ulster have got their own narrative coming to the game, in terms of the last last three weeks,” says Wilkins. “There’s been a lot written around that so, you know, they won’t lack for for motivation. I’m sure they won’t lack intent, but it’s up to us to impose our personality on the occasion, and make sure we get a chance to fire some shots and make a statement ourselves.”
Last weekends’s win in France has boosted Connacht’s confidence - “another win, so six from eight”, says Wilkins. “After the hole we put ourselves in at the front end of season, we have dug our out of it, but the next two weeks will be massive. It’s a huge game, another interprovincial game, and one we do not want to lose.”
