Physical test key to first ‘derby’ of the season

Date Published: {J}

Dara Bradley

A bumper crowd is expected at the Sportsground on Saturday (7.30pm) when Connacht look to keep the Magner’s League momentum going against Ulster, many pundits ‘dark-horse’ to win the competition outright this year.

The first three matches of the campaign have been extremely positive although results wise this is not Connacht’s best start to a new season (they recorded five straight wins at the beginning of the 2002/2003 season albeit against poorer opposition) – but a 40-17 home win against Newport Gwent Dragons; a massive encouraging performance that ended in a narrow defeat away to the Scarlets; and a first away victory in two and a half years last weekend against the Glasgow in Firhill, bodes well for the remainder of the year.

“We’re not getting carried away with ourselves. We’re going okay, there is confidence in the squad and I’m happy with the start. The lads are in a good place at the moment; it’s a tight-knit squad and we’ve set targets for ourselves but we won’t get carried away, Ulster are (second from) top of the league,” Connacht boss Eric Elwood told Tribune Sport this week.

Connacht last season at College Road was a t

otally different animal than when travelling (although the first two overseas matches this season suggests they have turned a corner in terms performing away from home), and they have lost just one of their last seven Magner’s League matches at the Sportsground.

But their record against Ulster at home and away is abysmal, and who can forget that clueless Connacht performance in September last year?

Even at that early stage last season it was billed as a potential Heineken Cup qualification decider but the home side failed to turn up and suffered a 30-6 hiding.

Connacht has only beaten Ulster on one occasion in the 13 meetings between the sides in the last seven years – a memorable 22-12 home win on New Year’s Eve in 2005 – but there is a renewed optimism within the province following their impressive start to the 2010/2011 season.

But Elwood wasn’t focused on the past this week and instead praised his players for their discipline against Glasgow and also for responding to the physical challenge posed by the aggressive Scots. He is expecting another bruising encounter against the northerners and has challenged his players to ‘front-up’ and meet the physical confrontation head-on.

“One of the key areas was to keep 15 players on the park and in fairness to the lads, our discipline against Glasgow was good – I felt we were good defensively and offensively. It would have been hard to have lost away again after the previous weekend against Scarlets . . . but the lads have a lot of confidence and self-belief now.

“We have a good home record but we don’t have a good record against them. We are very disappointed with the way we played against them last year but we’re not living in the past.

“If we can match them physically, and if we can match them up front – because that’s the way they play, they are very physical – then we’ll see. It’s a derby match and like all derby matches it will be physically demanding and we need to meet their physicality head-on.

“We have a great core of supporters at the Sportsground that the team and management appreciate. Obviously the lads respond to the crowd and they can influence decisions in matches like what happens when we are away so obviously we would be encouraging supporters to come along,” said Elwood.

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