Connacht Rugby face Bayonne

An away trip to Basque Country this weekend is an unwelcome distraction for Connacht Rugby this weekend.

Connacht Rugby’s primary focus must be on winning at least one of the three inter-provincials in the Pro 12 league over Christmas and New Year, rather than this test, even if it is European competition.

The Connacht Rugby management and players obviously insist they travel to France with the intention of completing back-to-back victories over Bayonne – what professional outfit sets out to lose?

But the province’s main protagonists should be kept in reserve for the mouth-watering trip to Dublin, where the westerners face Leinster in the RDS next Friday, December 19.

Then it’s another away trip to Ulster (Dec 26), a place where Connacht Rugby hasn’t won in over 50 years; and home to Munster (Jan 1). An away win in Bayonne this Saturday will count for little if Connacht Rugby can’t avoid a whitewash against the other three Irish provinces, which would precipitate a slide down the league table. Time to get the priorities right.

Lock Mick Kearney suffered an ankle sprain early-on in Connacht’s five-try bonus win over Bayonne at the Sportsground at the weekend, and head coach Pat Lam will not want to risk any other front-line starters at Stade Jean Dauger this Saturday (kick-off, 8.45pm local time, 7.45pm in Ireland).

Despite indicating he would ring the changes for last Saturday, Lam fielded as strong a team as was available and got his just desserts: a seventh win on the trot at College Road this season, copper-fastening the Sportsground as a fortress.

It would be unconscionable not to rest front-liners this weekend, with just a six-day turnaround, as well as travel from France and to Dublin to take into account for the next two fixtures.

As well as Kearney, Andrew Browne (knee) and scrum-half Ian Porter (foot) are also sidelined, and Lam could be forced to dip into his reserves of Connacht Rugby Academy and Eagles players.

A much-changed starting 15 will be announced at noon today.

A win on the road will set-up a European Challenge Cup Pool Two decider with Exeter Chiefs in January at the Sportsground.

But it’s not the end of the world if they lose either as qualification would still be as possibility even if they come away with nothing.

The priority must be on the performance, and, even allowing for the margin of victory, 42-19, there is ample scope for improvement from last week for the Connacht players, who switched off too often against Bayonne.

Lam admitted there were “too many troughs” in Connacht’s performance and he called for his charges to be more clinical, against Bayonne who will be a different beast at home.

“We will have to be ruthless or teams like Bayonne are capable of punishing you,” he said.

“We are going there to win. We truly believe we have a game plan and a team who can go there and win this game. The key is making sure we do our preparation as a team and as individuals.

“We’ve also got to be careful and use our squad ahead of what is a crucial period of games. We have a squad of around 40 players, including some Academy guys, and they’ve all been training around our structures and systems week in week out since the preseason.

“So we trust our squad and will trust the team we pick to go out there and play as a team in the Connacht Rugby jersey. No doubt Bayonne will make changes too. We know it will be a different story over there.”