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Eric Elwood and Connacht will face Harlequins for the third season running. Lynne Cameron/PA Archive
Old Foes

Heineken Cup: Elwood sweats over Henshaw as 'Quins test looms

The Connacht coach was delighted with his side’s start ahead of another fierce battle with Conor O’Shea’s troops.

ANKLE INJURIES FOR Robbie Henshaw and Eoin Griffin are the major concerns for Connacht coach Eric Elwood ahead of the Saturday visit of Harlequins to Galway.

Having doubled their Heineken Cup ‘wins’ tally by defeating Zebre 19-10 in Italy at the weekend, Elwood’s men will be hoping to replicate the home win over ‘Quins last season.

Connacht did not train on Monday but had an intense session on Tuesday. Elwood was relieved that his squad arrived back from Italy with no major injury concerns.

“(There is a) small concern around Eoin Griffin and Robbie Henshaw who both picked up ankle injuries so they’ll continue to be assessed this week ahead of Friday’s team announcement.

“Dave McSharry and George Naoupu picked up a good few knocks and bruises but we’re hopeful that they’ll be back for Saturday.”

Building on a good start

Elwood was happy with the hard-fought win away from home and believes it was just the start Connacht were looking for in their second successive Heineken Cup campaign.

He said, “We never underestimated how difficult it was going to be against Zebre and an away win in the Heineken is a great positive for us.” Elwood added:

On reflection, we felt we left some chances and opportunities behind us particularly at the start of the second half when we were piling a lot of pressure on them in their 22. So we felt we could have had a better score line if we had taken those chances that we created.

“But, that being said, we take the win as a huge positive and it gives us great confidence going into this difficult task we have now at the weekend against ‘Quins”

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