Connacht aiming to earn two Rabo wins on the trot in tie with Zebre

CONNACHT will look to put back to back wins together in Pro 12 action for the first time this season when they travel to Parma on Sunday to take on Zebre. (4.30pm, live on TG4).

Last Saturday’s victory over Edinburgh saw Pat Lam’s side get off the bottom of the table and move ahead of the Italians, but that will be reversed if they lose this weekend.

The westerners will be without Ronan Loughney who is out with a calf strain for two weeks and Jake Heenan who is having shoulder surgery and will miss the rest of the season.

Coming back into contention are Brett Wilkinson and Gavin Duffy, while Willie Faloon is back training but still three weeks off a return.

The 11-7 victory over Edinburgh was far from Connacht’s best display of the season but a strong second half effort meant the woeful Scottish side didn’t have much more than a sniff of a try.

That will please the management who will be targeting another win here and the following weekend at home to a Treviso side that lost 76-6 in Swansea against the Ospreys last weekend.

All the while in the background, negotiations continue regarding the future of European Club rugby with the proposed 20 team Rugby Champions Cup becoming more of a possibility.

The prospect of Italian sides withdrawing from the Pro 12, the grumblings and poor attendances for Welsh regions and the flat out crisis in Scottish rugby merely adds to the air of uncertainty.

Despite all that, work on building a squad for next season continues with another group of re-signings announced this week.

Three more squad members have extended their contracts. Tiernan O’Halloran signing for two seasons, Miah Nikora and Jack Carty signing for one season.

The 21 year old Roscommon native Jack Carty has had a rapid rise in the past six weeks, making his first start against Leinster in early January after a good first half of the season with Buccaneers at club level.

His development will be interesting to watch. The squad for next season is taking shape with a mixture of academy graduates and experienced players having being signed up for the next campaign at least with some tied up to 2016.

For more rugby news from the AIL and Junior Cup see today’s City Tribune here