DESPITE BEING NEAR-unbackable favourites to prevail, Connacht head coach Andy Friend doesn’t expect Leinster to be drawn into a false sense of security ahead of their Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16 first-leg clash at the Sportsground in Galway this Friday.
In addition to anticipating their march into the last-eight of the competition, Leo Cullen’s Leinster are also being backed by a number of bookmakers as the team most likely to be crowned European champions at Stade Velodrome in Marseille on 28 May.
Playing in a knockout Champions Cup game for the very first time, Connacht will be hoping to avoid a repeat of their 45-8 hammering to Leinster at the same venue in the United Rugby Championship last Saturday week. The Blues achieved that victory without a host of frontline internationals, but Friend doesn’t foresee the visitors displaying any signs of complacency in their latest bout.
“No, I don’t think there’ll be any falseness around the way that they’re prepping. They’re a very professional side and they’ll have big visions of where they want to get to. They’ll come down respecting the fact that they’re coming to the Sportsground. Respecting the fact that it’s Champions Cup knockout rugby,” Friend remarked at a virtual press conference yesterday.
They’ll be very well prepped and ready to take us on. That’s probably the way we want it, to be honest with you, at the same time. We’re here doing the same on the other side. Maybe not with the same firepower, but in terms of all the resources and everything else that goes into it.
“We’re still in that same 80 minute battle. We’ve got 23 players going out there as well representing their province and their club, and everyone else that works in the organisation. It should be a great battle.”
In what is a new venture for European rugby’s top-tier competition, Friday’s game will be the first of a two-part affair, with the sides subsequently renewing acquaintances at the Aviva Stadium seven days later. While those within the Leinster and Connacht camps have been preaching the importance of not looking ahead to the second chapter of this saga at Irish Rugby HQ, Friend admitted the westerners need to come away from Friday’s encounter with something to play for.
As I said before we’re not looking too far beyond, but you’re dead right. You have to. If it’s a dead rubber game in the second one, it makes it very difficult, doesn’t it? Everything is about getting your best performance on Friday night and hopefully that’s enough to get points.
“If you do and you’re still alive, then it makes the second leg even more spectacular. We’ll wait and see what happens with that.”
Aside from Alex Wootton – who started knockout games against Toulon and Racing 92 for Munster in 2017/18 – playing beyond the pool stages of the Champions Cup will be a new venture for this Connacht squad.
Yet there is still a lot of experience in their ranks with Bundee Aki, Finlay Bealham, Mack Hansen and Jack Carty – albeit briefly – having all featured for Ireland in this year’s Six Nations Championship. There are several others who have been capped for Ireland at senior level and Friend believes they will be able to conjure the appropriate emotional pitch on Friday night.
“You’ve just got to tone it and make sure you don’t lose the energy too early in the week. The likes of a Bundee Aki, he’s been brilliant for us. Jack Carty set some really good tones, we had some really powerful involvement in terms of that tone too from Finlay Bealham.
“Your big international players, they’re the ones who set it for you and us as coaches give them the space to do that for these big interpro games. Add another element on top of that because it’s interpro in the Champions Cup.”
If Connacht are to enjoy another memorable European evening in Galway this Friday, then curbing the influence of Jonathan Sexton will be pivotal. He remains a formidable presence for both Ireland and Leinster at 36 years of age, but Friend’s charges are going to do everything within their powers to stop him dictating the flow of the contest.
“He is, to me, one of the heartbeats of Irish rugby. He’s been world player of the year, we’ve seen that. You see whenever he plays, whether it’s for Leinster or for Ireland, he’s a competitor and controls the game very, very well. He’s a key lynchpin for both Leinster and for Ireland.
“We have respect for him, but at the end of the day too he’s another footballer and if we can put him under pressure, like all people, we all have breaking points. We’ll see how we go on Friday night,” Friend added.
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