WITH CONNACHT IN need of a bounce in their step this week, the returns of captain Jack Carty, influential second row Gavin Thornbury, and abrasive back row Conor Oliver could prove very timely.
Having been beaten in their opening two URC games of the season against Ulster and the Stormers, the western province need to produce something special on Friday as they take on the Bulls in Pretoria.
Andy Friend has also been able to welcome scrum-half Colm Reilly into the squad to replace Caolin Blade, while academy hooker Eoin de Buitléar was also in the party of reinforcements who arrived in South Africa on Saturday.
On the flip side, Connacht have lost Cian Prendergast, Dylan Tierney-Martin, and Sam Illo to the Emerging Ireland squad, which Caolin Blade would have joined but for his ankle injury against the Stormers.
And Connacht have also been left without the talismanic Bundee Aki due to his red card last weekend. So the fresh faces will need to bring that bounce.
“We want to add energy and a bit of freshness,” says back row Oliver.
“I’ve done this trip a few times now and I know sometimes it is tough. I love all the lads but it is tough being rugby, rugby, rugby for two weeks.
“So I hope we offer an uplift and energy. We didn’t play last weekend and we’ll be bursting to play and that will be massive for the weekend, we can’t wait to get going. I feel that personally and I’m sure the other lads will feel that also.”
While Connacht were well beaten by Ulster in round one of the URC, they felt they got much closer against the Stormers second time out.
Aki’s red card came at a very bad time when Connacht had seized some momentum and looked threatening. Having watched from the sidelines, Oliver believes that his team could have won the game had they been more clinical.
“We’ve changed a lot of our attacking shapes. We have different principles in place compared to what we did last year,” he explains.
“One thing we identified massively is the amount of opportunities we are actually creating. We didn’t take them at the weekend but we were a pass or two away from actually scoring a couple of tries.
“So that’s one of the main takeaways, that it was almost there, it was a tight game until the incident. We’re creating a lot of opportunity, it’s just that last pass or getting it into the space where we’re creating.”
Oliver stresses that this is no time for Connacht to panic even as they encounter teething issues with their revamped attack, although he admits that there is a need to start getting better results sooner rather than later.
If Connacht can welcome Oliver, Thornbury, and Carty back on Friday, it would be a huge boost. Oliver and Thornbury both started the game against Ulster before missing the Stormers clash, but Carty has yet to play this season as he has continued to recover from a wrist injury.
Carty has taken over as the official Connacht captain this season, having done the role very often last season, and Oliver is looking forward to the out-half’s leadership.
“He has been in the meetings and around the place, of course,” says Oliver. “He’s a really composed leader, really calm in terms of delivering messaging. That is what I look for in a captain and he has taken to the role excellently.
“Jarrad [Butler] is there as vice-captain, he can guide Jack as he has done it for many years and that is a great support. Jack will get better and better.”
