Connacht left with ground to make up after fixtures chaos

By Rob Murphy

PREVIEWS of Connacht games are full of uncertainties at the best of times but these days, the actual possibility of the game taking place is the primary one. For two weeks on the bounce now. Andy Friend’s side have had fixtures called off late in the week. It started with their home clash with Benetton at the start of this month and continued with last weekend’s fixture with the Dragons.

Connacht are now due to face the Scarlets at the Sportsground on Saturday evening (7:30) in round six of league action and for the moment at least, signs are good that this one will go ahead. We’ve said that before. Covid-19 precautions have been impressive across the various international organising bodies involved in the PRO14, so if these problems prove anything, it is that keeping 100% clear of all of this is next to impossible.

Taking decisive action when the virus comes knocking on the door, however, is another story and the league has come out well in that regard. Both Benetton and the Dragons have been quick to deal with issues and avoid causing a further outbreak in opposition teams. They each have had two games postponed this month.

Connacht will have to make up those games later in the year. Fixture congestion is a small price to play in the name of safety and ahead of Saturday’s return to action, head coach Andy Friend was unflustered by all the disruption.

“It is what it is, We can’t control that.” said Friend. “We had a good ‘in-house’ game last Saturday in lieu of the Dragons game. There’s frustration when you hear the news but that lasted an afternoon and no longer, the positives then came into focus. We have an additional week of prep to get ready for our next opposition and that’s what we’ve done each week,” said Friend.

So the Scarlets will arrive in Galway without a large group of key Welsh internationals and on a below par run of form that has seen them lose three of their first five. They had to rely on a late Angus O’Brien penalty to scrape past Zebre 18-17 at home last Sunday having given up a 12 point lead over the course of the contest.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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