Connacht are back in Dexcom Stadium on Saturday, buoyed by an opening-day URC victory, but without two key players.
Outhalf Josh Ioane and centre Byron Ralston are ruled out due to having suffered head knocks against Benetton, while forwards Shamus Hurley-Langton and Dylan Tierney-Martin are available for the visit of Scarlets.
“A lot of positives, still a lot to improve on, but good start,” says head coach Stuart Lancaster after overcoming Benetton with a four-try bonus point.
Provincial rivals get a head start on Leinster
“I thought we managed the adversity piece pretty well, so that was good, and we came out on the right end of the result in terms of it was nip-and-tuck at one point.”
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In paying tribute to last season’s coaching team, Pete Wilkins, Scott Fardy and Mark Sexton, Lancaster is now intent on grabbing a top-eight spot.
“When you looked back at the season, while Connacht came 13th, the margin of many defeats was three points here, two points there, but the other thing was the number of tries conceded,” he says.
“There was a defensive challenge that needed improving, a bit of game management, and a bit on the psychology of dealing with mistakes and moving on from a mistake. In terms of the game itself, I felt defensively we improved, we showed good intent to defend, better organisation and a better mentality to defend our line at all costs.”
However, having started on a high, Lancaster says the “trick now is to maintain the momentum”.
“Overall positive, but definitely there’s more than enough there to work on this week. We know that Scarlets will be targeting us in certain areas, so we need to fix that up before we go in to this weekend. They play a particular brand of rugby as well – that means you’re going to be challenged defensively.”
Lancaster has some selection headaches ahead, with last weekend’s sidelined players looking to impress the new coach.
[ Stuart Lancaster’s reign as Connacht coach begins with victory against BenettonOpens in new window ]
“You’ve got a whole lot of lads who played last week who want to play again, and you’ve got a whole lot of lads who didn’t play who want to play. So it’s a tricky balance. You base it on what you’ve seen in preseason. Fortunately, we’ve had a good group of 40-odd players who’ve done lots of rugby in preseason.
Lancaster is confident enough to say “we’ve won a game, but we can still change the team and hopefully still get a good performance”.
“Now whether we will or whether we won’t, it depends on how this week goes.”
Crucial for the season, though, are cultural changes taking place at Dexcom, led by Lancaster, who acknowledges Galway is different.
“Living in the West of Ireland is different to coaching in England or coaching at Racing 92. So you can’t just pick and change what you did in one organisation to another because it’s completely different.”
[ Stuart Lancaster hoping fresh approach pays off as he starts Connacht tenureOpens in new window ]
Having moved to the West of Ireland three months ago, Lancaster took his squad to Westport for a bonding and cultural weekend.
“We had a great talk from a former player who is from the West of Ireland, talking about what it means to live here, what do people look for in the team, you know?
“I think the players connect with that because I would say 50 per cent of our squad is from Connacht. Obviously, there’s a chunk of players who have come across from Dublin or different parts of Ireland, and there’s some lads who’ve come from overseas, and people like myself and Rod [Seib, senior assistant coach] who’ve come from England and Australia.”
Crucially, he says, the squad has bought in to the move.
“We’ve all bought in to living here. And so for me, it was great, you know, to listen to the history.
“I know from my own experiences of playing against Connacht, how hard it is to win in the Sportsground. And I think that’s part of what was probably missing last year. And we can all point to the fact, oh, well, you’ve only got three-quarters of the ground.”
Lancaster says key to Connacht’s DNA is “defiance”.
“We’ve talked about defiance, and that ability to dig in, protect your home ground. I’m sure they talked about that last year, but you’ve got to bring it to life in your training sessions.”
