IF IT ALL goes to plan then Connacht back rower Paul Boyle will hit the 100 appearances mark for the province before Christmas as he enjoys a good spell free of injury.

The Wexford native has been a great servant to Connacht on and off the field since moving west in 2018 but has had to endure several injury issues.

But now the 27-year old, capped by Ireland against the USA three and a half years ago, is enjoying a great run and hopes to continue it against the Dragons on Saturday night when he will make his 97^th appearance for Connacht.

“I’ve stayed injury-free this year and I’m happy with how I’m going. Last year was a frustrating one. I broke my wrist the week before the first game,” said Boyle.

Then when I came back, I broke my eye socket over in Saracens. So it was a really frustrating year. And this year, the pre-season was brilliant, got loads into the legs.

“I’m feeling good, feeling fit. I’m loving getting stuck into the games. I feel like I’m playing well, and I just need to keep building on that and keep going,” he added.

Connacht will hope to make it three wins from this opening block of six URC games when they meet the Newport side at Dexcom Stadium.

Boyle in action against Leinster. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO

“We’ve been really good in parts of certain games,” added the Gorey native. “But I suppose that last little element of it all clicking, I think, is really close. And I think it’s gonna be really exciting when it does.”

Boyle said they were taking nothing for granted against a Dragons side who are third from bottom with just seven points out of 25 from their opening five games.

But he said the manner in which they stayed with Leinster in the Aviva Stadium until Leo Cullen’s men turned the screw in the final quarter for a 34-6 win is enough of a warning.

“They have a very big pack,” added Boyle. “They’re a really physical side. So we’re going to have a huge focus on our maul defence, our own goal line defence and pile a lot of bodies into that.

“There are much improved outfit this year. Like, even if you look at their Leinster game, they were away from home and they were just 10-6 down after 50 minutes. Like, they are a good physical side.

“But the big focus is on ourselves. We really do believe if we play our game the way we want to I think it’s going to be very hard to stop us if we can get into our flow.”