CIAN HEALY’S COMMENTS have no doubt stoked the early-season rivalry between Leinster and Connacht heading into Saturday’s inter-pro showdown in Galway, but Andy Friend wants his side to concentrate solely on rising to their own task.
Healy accused Connacht of disrespectful behaviour during last April’s clash between the sides at the Sportsground, when John Muldoon — in one of the final acts of a mammoth career — kicked a conversion as his side eviscerated the would-be European champions.
The back-and-forth between the provinces in recent days has only added to the anticipation ahead of the teatime kick-off at the Sportsground, as the western province look to maintain their winning run at home to provincial rivals having beaten all three last season.
It may have become something of a storm in a teacup, but with Connacht increasing the capacity of their home ground to 8,000 and tickets already long gone, tensions are set to be high come Saturday evening when the sides go head-to-head.
For Connacht, they are coming in off the back of last week’s hugely encouraging defeat of Scarlets and certainly Friend’s tenure in charge has got off to a good start, with the westerners sitting third in Conference A.
The Australian has clearly instilled a new-found confidence and belief within the dressing room, with fans buoyed by the free-flowing and expansive style of rugby Friend has Connacht playing again.
Key for the head coach is seeing his side develop in areas of the game they’ve spent the pre-season period and early stage of the season working on, particularly around defensive structures and the set-piece.
“We’ve been working on key areas of our defensive system, our attacking structures and out set-piece, and I can see improvement every week,” he said.
“That’s the important thing for me. If the wins come that’s fantastic, but as long as we’re developing because it’s only early doors in the competition too. It feels like we’re midway through it, but this is only game five so we need to keep seeing those improvements.
“This weekend is a big game. I’m just learning what these inter-pros are all about. There’s definitely a heightened awareness of it and I know it means a lot to our boys to perform well against a side like Leinster.
“The crowd support we’ve had in the opening few fixtures we’ve had at the Sportsground has been great. The performance the guys put out on the park against Scarlets, I know made a lot of the Connacht fans really proud. They’re going to turn up and support the team this weekend. To have a sell-out crowd for the Leinster fixture is a massive thing for us.”
After the disappointment of losing on the opening weekend to Glasgow, Connacht have rebounded impressively with home wins over Zebre and Scarlets, in-between a trip to Edinburgh where they battled for a losing bonus-point.
While the performance graph has been moving in the right direction week-on-week, the standout form of individuals such as Jack Carty has been hugely influential in Connacht’s strong start.
“Every week he’s [Carty] getting better, growing in confidence and developing his game and skillset,” Friend said of his out-half.
“It’s great to have Bundee [Aki]outside him and Kieran [Marmion] inside him and that just gives him a bit more confidence too so he’s going well.”
Certainly that half-back and midfield axis is a real strength for Connacht, with Tom Farrell, Matt Healy and Tiernan O’Halloran completing a powerful and exciting backline. Building that strength in depth is something Friend has focused on since his summer arrival in Galway.
“You need that,” he says. “The best squads in the world are the ones that have got players underneath pushing the players above them. Human nature is you become complacent unless you’re getting pushed, so to have that pushing coming from their peers just brings the best out of people. We’re starting to get that in most positions across the park.
“It’s a really good headache for us to have. We’ve got a bloke like Kyle Godwin who didn’t start last week. That’s tough, he’s an international player so we’ve got some quality players in that midfield.”
But Friend knows his side will have to bring their very best to the table on Saturday evening, with Leo Cullen’s Leinster building a head of steam after back-to-back home wins in rounds three and four over the Dragons and Edinburgh.
“When anyone takes on the champion European team, champion Pro14 team, you’ve got to bring your best game and if you can manage to get a win against them that means a hell of a lot.
“We’re under no illusions as we know it’s going to be a really tough 80 minutes and for us to do that, we need to be at our best and that’s what we’re looking to do.
“To me what a great opportunity this weekend for both our sides to challenge each other. You know as the champion side, you know every time you pull on that jersey, every team you play against is going to raise their game, so that’s another challenge for those boys have got every single time they play.
“Our challenge this weekend is to rise to that occasion and make sure we give our fans something to be really proud and make it really uncomfortable for them to come to the Sportsground.”
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