Connacht are hopeful outhalf Jack Carty will be fully fit to start against the visiting Emirates Lions on Saturday evening at the Sportsground (7.35pm ) in what is becoming a fight for the top eight.
With just a point between these two sides, there is much to gain for Andy Friend’s side in a bid to move from their current 11th place.
Currently only five points are the difference between Connacht and eighth-placed Edinburgh, so the need for wins is becoming imperative at this stage of the competition. Similarly, the visiting South Africans are only a point behind Connacht at present.
Carty picked up a knee injury last week, but he did train yesterday and Friend reports it “looked a lot better”.
“We will see how he pulls up. We had him involved last week, but he picked up a knee injury, so he couldn’t travel with us.”
However, Alex Wootton has been ruled out, having sustained an HIA, as is Byron Ralston, who is seeing a specialist for an ankle injury, and hooker Dave Heffernan has a knee injury, which is currently being monitored.
Although Paul Boyle returned to training earlier than expected, Friend says it is unlikely he will be ready this weekend.
Cian Prendergast and Bundee Aki will be missing due to their involvement with the Ireland camp, but the Connacht coaching director scotched continuing rumours of Aki heading to Munster, or elsewhere, saying: “I have no doubt he’ll be here - it is all just paper talk as far as I am aware,” Friend says.
The Connacht boss will certainly be demanding an improved performance after a disappointing 35-21 loss to Newcastle in the final pool round of the European Challenge Cup.
“We know the Lions are tenacious, have a massive scrum, big forward pack, and an amazing capacity to make you miss tackles,” he says.
“Although we did leak 35 points at the weekend, I am comfortable and confident our defence is one of the strongest parts of our game, but a South African team coming here on the last week of their tour - they will have bonded well, and will be buoyed by their win [30-25 over Dragons] on the weekend, and no doubt they will be targeting us on Saturday night.”
This fixture will be something of a litmus test for a Connacht team that has displayed erratic form this season, including last weekend’s 35-21 loss to Newcastle. While Connacht still qualified for the round of 16, the unexpected defeat means they dropped down the rankings, now face an away fixture with Benetton in Italy, and will be counting the cost of the Sportsground hosting a valuable European fixture.
“We have reviewed it. It’s frustrating, we can’t change it, and we sit here knowing it was a massive opportunity missed.
“To turn up to Newcastle and make what was already a difficult job more difficult by an opening 20 minutes that leaked seven penalties and 21 points, made it really difficult to come back.”
Friend admitted he was deflated after the loss - “A huge difference between what we could have won, and what we are now facing into.”
Although Newcastle had only one point going into the match, their bonus point win was sufficient for them to qualify, while Connacht lost the opportunity to enjoy home advantage in the next round.
Connacht coaching director Andy Friend had headed to Newcastle with a strong three wins from three - a fourth would have given Connacht possible home matches throughout all the next stages of the European Challenge Cup competition. Instead the concession of three tries put them on the hind foot from the start, and in playing catch-up, they simply ran out of time.
“It’s now a trickier path,” says Friend, “But you’ve seen the fight in this team, and we are going to have to fight pretty hard now.”
Connacht were stung by three tries in the opening 20 minute which put them on the back foot from the start, not helped by a host of “seven red dumb-ass penalties in the first 25 minutes”.
“How we got back into the game surprised me. It is that fighting sprit, but we need more than that. We need to be better.
“But we’ll pay a compliment to Newcastle. They came out and were on it from the off, they put us under pressure.”
Tries from Newcastle captain Michael Young, centre Matias Orlando, and left wing Mateo Carreras, all converted by outhalf Tian Schoeman had Connacht on the back foot, not helped by a yellow card for Connacht’s Byron Ralston.
Connacht did claw back the deficit when man of the match Finlay Bealham scoring a hat-trick of tries, but they could never recover, particularly after Caolin Blade had a try disallowed, while Newcastle’s Josh Barton and Pete Lucock scored again.
NEWCASTLE FALCONS; A Tait, B Stevenson, M Orlando, P Lucock, M Carreras, T Schoeman, M Young (c ), L Mulipola, J Blamire, T Davison, G Peterson, S De Chaves, G Graham, P van der Walt, C Fearns.
Replacements: J Barton for Young (22 ), P Rubiolo for Peterson (36 ), F Lockwood for Fearns (53 ), A Brocklebank for Mulipola (54 ), A Radwan for Tait (62 ), R Palframan for Davison (62 ), C Maddison for van der Walt (67 ), J Thomas for Schoeman (67 ).
CONNACHT RUGBY: M Hansen, A Byrne, B Ralston, C Forde, A Wootton, C Fitzgerald, C Reilly, D Buckley, S Delahunt, F Bealham, L Fefita, J Murphy, S Hurley-Langsto, C Oliver, J Butler (c ).
Replacements: T Farrell for Wootton (32 ), D Murray for Fifita (58 ), D Tierney Martin for Delahunt (58 ), C Blade for Reilly 58 ), T Daly for Fitzgerald (60 ), J Aungier for Bealham, C Booth for Hurley-Langton and J Duggan for Buckley (62 )
Referee: Pierre-Baptiste Nuchy (France ).
