CONNACHT COACH PETE Wilkins said they hope to know over the weekend the extent of the ankle injury which forced Mack Hansen to limp off midway through the opening half of their biggest ever home defeat in Europe when they were hammered 41-5 by Bordeaux-Bègles.
He said it was not known post-match if it was the same ankle injury which troubled the Irish star during the World Cup.
“It was a foot injury and that’s the extent of all I know at this point,” said after the game. “They’ll be assessing him and the first thing to see is it a recurrence of what he had at the back end of that World Cup campaign or is it something fresh.
“I’ll get the verdict on that, and we’ll find out in the next 48 hours whether that needs scanning or whether it’s something that will freshen up and come good.”
Hansen, who started the match with heavy strapping around his right boot, and flanker Cian Prendergast were really the only two Connacht players to perform to expected levels as they were blown away by a much faster and stronger Bordeaux-Bègles who thrashed them by six tries to one.
It is not only Connacht’s biggest ever home loss in the Champions Cup, beating the 37-9 loss to Toulouse ten seasons ago but also surpasses any loss at the Sportsground in the Challenge Cup and Wilkins and his management now face the difficult task of lifting the squad for a trip to Mark McCall’s star-studded Saracens side in north London next Saturday.
“You never want the scoreline to get away from you, which it absolutely did,” added Wilkins. “You don’t want it to get to that stage, but I think it was more the type of performance that disappointed me more so than the scoreline, particularly in the first half.
“There were areas in the second half, but I just felt we were a step behind Bordeaux in the first half and you see that in how we attacked and how we defended, how we reacted to turnover ball, you could see it in our kick-chase.
“I just felt we were one step behind them and that gave them the opportunity to build belief, and I think a French team coming to Galway in mid-winter, I think they can come here, even the good teams, wondering which way it’s going to go but when you give them that foothold they get that confidence and they are too good a team not to play on the back of that platform.
“We started the game really brightly and those couple of sets of attack which we didn’t get the points from. But I think the quality of that attack gave us real confidence but there was a frustration not turning that into points of some sort,” added Wilkins.
Connacht now face an extremely difficult mission to qualify for the last 16 given that they have to go to Sarries and Lyon as well as host Pat Lam’s Bristol Bear but Wilkins said they have an ideal opportunity to get back on track next weekend against Owen Farrell’s side.
“It’s going to be tough in a different way,” added Wilkins. “The quality that Bordeaux brought, we knew this was going to be a very really big challenge.
To go away to Saracens, the European pedigree they have, the internationals they have across the board. I don’t want to sound too excited too soon because we’ve got to process this defeat and get a lot better on the back of it.
“In terms of incentive of what lies ahead and having a full week to prepare and put the bits in place around selection, game planning, around training, we couldn’t wish to have a better scenario.
“We’ve got to work through this review, and we’ll have to be pretty blunt with the players and with each other on Monday around what we could and should have done better but what a carrot at the end of the week, to go away to Saracens and see what we can do to them.
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