PAUL BOYLE MISSED the cut for Connacht last week, but he wants to take that frustration out on Gloucester as the province seek to rescue their Champions Cup hopes on Saturday.
The former Ireland U20 captain was left out of the travelling party for last weekend’s game in Kingsholm, and watching from his couch at home, his was left to rue his absence as Connacht wilted in the face of a stern challenge from their Gloucester hosts.
The Gorey native played the previous week in Connacht’s less than convincing win over Southern Kings, and now that they’re back at the Sportsground again the No. 8 wants to play his part and help his side to a second win of the competition.
“It is really tough not playing. There is huge competition for places and although we got five points from the Kings game, as a team we really didn’t perform well, and as an individual I wasn’t particularly happy with how I went either,” said the 22-year old, who has otherwise impressed in his eight Connacht appearances this season.
“I just didn’t get as many good involvements as I’d like. There was no huge errors as such, but you have to be getting on the ball and be very clinical in your role when the competition is so high.
There was a couple of small basic errors and that cost me my place at the weekend. I’ve been training hard this week and I want to get back on the horse and put in a good performance.”
Connacht started their Champions Cup pool with a win over Montpellier in Galway, but since then an impressive performance against Toulouse went unrewarded in France, while last weekend’s performance didn’t deserve a point.
Sitting on four points in the standings, three bonus points wins in their remaining games could see them qualify as one of three best runners up, but it will take a huge effort from Andy Friend’s side to achieve that goal.
“Look, if we are being totally honest it makes it harder, particularly not getting the bonus points, but we have three games left and if we get the results we feel we are capable of with 14 or 15 points you leave yourself in with a good chance.
“That’s all we can do is focus on these three games, get as many points as we can from it and see where that leaves us.
“This game in particular this weekend, Gloucester are obviously a good side, but we felt that we could mix it with them. We will be going gung-ho this weekend to try and get five points and see where it leaves us.”
