Connacht without a host of front-line players for season-opener in Belfast

BY JOHN FALLON

New Connacht skipper Jack Carty said they are viewing the toughest start to a season that they have ever endured as an opportunity to lay down a serious marker for the campaign ahead.

They open away to Dan McFarland’s Ulster this Saturday in Belfast (7.35pm, TG4, BBCNI, Premier Sports), and having asked the URC to be fixed away from home in the opening weeks to allow them get the new 4G surface at the Sportsground sorted, they then travel to South Africa to take on the champions the Stormers and then face the runners-up, the Bulls.

Their first home game will be next month against Munster and then they host Leinster — playing five of the top six teams last season in the openings.

There is every danger Connacht could lose all five of those matches and leave them facing an impossible task to rescue their season, but Carty and his men are viewing it differently and know that a decent return from that string of games would set them up for a very good season.

“We ourselves are getting out of that mindset of thinking ‘why has this happened to us?’ We’re looking at it in a completely different way. You’re playing three inter-pros and then playing the winners and runners-up.

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

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