Connacht look to bounce back from poor defeat

By JOHN FALLON

One of the mantras of Andy Friend since he arrived in the Sportsground over two years ago is the need for everyone to be versatile and step into the breach when required, but forwards coach Jimmy Duffy paid a big price for enthusiastically embracing that challenge in training.

The 43-years-old former Connacht lock not only decided to wind back the clock to his own playing days, but also opted for a positional switch to scrum-half. As a result, he has been hobbling around on crutches for the last week waiting a scan to show if it was a nerve or something else he damaged in his back.

Connacht may be light on locks at the minute through injuries and with Ultan Dillane and Quinn Roux in Irish camp, but they were also down numbers at scrum-half last week with Kieran Marmion on international duty and Caolin Blade injured.

That’s when Duffy decided to step into the fray in training – and he has been paying the price since.

“I was probably thinking I was 23 rather than 43,” said Duffy. “I jumped in a session to make up the numbers for one of the drills, just to facilitate the exercise and I thought I could play nine! I learned my lesson.”

Duffy and the Connacht management will be hoping that will be the extent of the freakish injuries as they continue a hectic schedule which sees them head to Parma this Sunday (2.30pm Irish time) for a sequence of matches which will continue for 10 more games to the end of January.

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

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.