CIARÁN FRAWLEY SAYS it was brilliant to mark his first home match for Connacht with a win over former champions Saracens as Stuart Lancaster’s men got their campaign off to a flying start.

Frawley, who scored two tries in a man-of-the-match display, said he got a taste of what the Connacht crowd can give their team when he played for Leinster at the opening of the revamped Dexcom Stadium back in January.

Frawley was at fullback that day as Leinster dished out a 52-17 URC hammering to their hosts, but he couldn’t wait for his home debut at the Galway venue after a couple of away URC games.

“Yeah, it’s unbelievable. I obviously played in front of this crowd last season and the energy you can feed off is unreal, so to play alongside them is brilliant. What a game,” said Frawley.

Frawley, who scored two tries on his debut away to Benetton including a late winner, scored a brace in the second half as Connacht stunned Sarries 45-36 in a Champions Cup game which produced 13 tries, seven of them to Lancaster’s side.

“They have some unbelievable experience in that team and they’re a very good team from one to 23, so we knew they were going to pose that threat. And look, we’re needed to front up after a difficult game last week against Glasgow and we didn’t fire shots.

“So tonight we said, ‘Give the crowd a bit of energy, fire some shots, play Connacht rugby’, and I think we did that tonight.”

Frawley, relieved of the kicking duties by fullback Sam Gilbert who landed five conversions, said the win was down to a huge squad effort.

“It’s not only me, it’s the rest of the lads, knowing their detail, that’s the big thing and setting it up for me.

“So look, we just have to take these shots when they come and I thought we did that well tonight. We just have to keep pushing on for next week as well.

“We have Zebre at home here next week, so we’ll have to give the crowd a similar performance to that and keep building on these performances,” added Frawley.