WHEN STUART LANCASTER was announced as Connacht head coach, much of the excitement around the appointment centered on his track record of working with young players.
Midway through a frustrating season, Connacht supporters are still holding onto the hope of what their team may become under Lancaster, rather than feeling good about what they currently offer.
A difficult few weeks has brought some heavy and disappointing defeats. A harrowing 48-28 loss at the Dragons before Christmas was followed by a 29-24 home defeat to Ulster. On Saturday they suffered a slow start against Leinster before fighting back before half time in a game which ultimately ran away from them, losing 52-17 at Aviva Stadium.
The province have had to negotiate those fixtures with a troubling injury list, but even so, the return has been bitterly disappointing. As they dust themselves off and prepare to step back into Challenge Cup mode, Lancaster is adamant the poor run of form won’t dent the confidence of his young group of players who have been tasked with stepping up this season.
It was a frustrating night for Connacht in Dublin. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
“It happened with young lads at Leinster as well,” said Lancaster, referencing his seven years working as a coach with the eastern province.
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“It’s how you deal with defeat, how you give them solutions to the problem. Like, I can talk to Fiachra Barrett and Billy Bohan as much as I like about the intensity coming around the corner but until you have actually felt it… And you can see it in the changing-room after, how they suddenly felt how it feels to play against a top team that does things quicker and a bit harder, and the pace seems to be gone before it’s even there.
“For me, Connacht have got a great group of young players coming through and we have to have the confidence to give them opportunities to play. If we don’t then we’re storing trouble for further down the line.
“I see my challenge as to win here and now but at the same time put strong foundations in place with the way we train, with the young players but recognising as well that we need a strong senior group to see them through.
“That’s what Leinster do really well: they bring lads in from the bottom end as lads drop out of the top end. If you look at the cycle of where our squad is, that is an example of what will happen at the end of this season because we need to bring young players through.
We ideally need to bring more quality in and in some ways reduce the size of the squad at the moment and actually trust the young players more.
“That’s the goal because I’ve come from Leinster and I know it’s a model that works and so you have to put them in at some point.”
Connacht now head back into Challenge Cup action, playing Montpellier away on Sunday before hosting Montauban in Galway. After that, it’s back to the URC, where they face Leinster again on 24 January – a game which will see the new Clan Stand at Dexcom Stadium officially opened.
And with Connacht’s current URC position a concern, Lancaster will rotate his squad again over the coming weeks ahead of that Leinster rematch. The province are currently 12th in the table, three points off the top eight.
“There are certainly one or two who will need to be managed but also we have a pretty extensive injury list over the last three or four weeks which is going to ease in the next week. So we will have lads like Jack Aungier, Dave Heffernan and Sean Naughton coming back soon.
“Caolin Blade won’t be too far away so there are four or five lads who are waiting to play so you can use that window for that. But the priority for me is to qualify in the Challenge Cup to give ourselves a fighting chance come the end of the season.
“But the real aim is to finish top eight [in the URC]. You see the league now and there is definitely a split, isn’t there? There is a top six and then there is going to be a hell of a scrap for seven and eight and we want to be in that scrap.
“The Leinster and Zebre games are huge games for us now. We play Glasgow in the Six Nations minus their internationals, same with the Scarlets, then various other games towards the end of that period where we don’t lose as many players internationally as others.
“Playing at home has been hard for 18 months, playing in what feels like an empty stadium, a half-full stadium, so to have the stand open for the Leinster game is huge and then to maintain that momentum for future home games will be massive second-half of the season.”
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Lancaster says Connacht will double down on faith in young players
WHEN STUART LANCASTER was announced as Connacht head coach, much of the excitement around the appointment centered on his track record of working with young players.
Midway through a frustrating season, Connacht supporters are still holding onto the hope of what their team may become under Lancaster, rather than feeling good about what they currently offer.
A difficult few weeks has brought some heavy and disappointing defeats. A harrowing 48-28 loss at the Dragons before Christmas was followed by a 29-24 home defeat to Ulster. On Saturday they suffered a slow start against Leinster before fighting back before half time in a game which ultimately ran away from them, losing 52-17 at Aviva Stadium.
The province have had to negotiate those fixtures with a troubling injury list, but even so, the return has been bitterly disappointing. As they dust themselves off and prepare to step back into Challenge Cup mode, Lancaster is adamant the poor run of form won’t dent the confidence of his young group of players who have been tasked with stepping up this season.
“It happened with young lads at Leinster as well,” said Lancaster, referencing his seven years working as a coach with the eastern province.
“It’s how you deal with defeat, how you give them solutions to the problem. Like, I can talk to Fiachra Barrett and Billy Bohan as much as I like about the intensity coming around the corner but until you have actually felt it… And you can see it in the changing-room after, how they suddenly felt how it feels to play against a top team that does things quicker and a bit harder, and the pace seems to be gone before it’s even there.
“For me, Connacht have got a great group of young players coming through and we have to have the confidence to give them opportunities to play. If we don’t then we’re storing trouble for further down the line.
“I see my challenge as to win here and now but at the same time put strong foundations in place with the way we train, with the young players but recognising as well that we need a strong senior group to see them through.
“That’s what Leinster do really well: they bring lads in from the bottom end as lads drop out of the top end. If you look at the cycle of where our squad is, that is an example of what will happen at the end of this season because we need to bring young players through.
“That’s the goal because I’ve come from Leinster and I know it’s a model that works and so you have to put them in at some point.”
Connacht now head back into Challenge Cup action, playing Montpellier away on Sunday before hosting Montauban in Galway. After that, it’s back to the URC, where they face Leinster again on 24 January – a game which will see the new Clan Stand at Dexcom Stadium officially opened.
And with Connacht’s current URC position a concern, Lancaster will rotate his squad again over the coming weeks ahead of that Leinster rematch. The province are currently 12th in the table, three points off the top eight.
“There are certainly one or two who will need to be managed but also we have a pretty extensive injury list over the last three or four weeks which is going to ease in the next week. So we will have lads like Jack Aungier, Dave Heffernan and Sean Naughton coming back soon.
“Caolin Blade won’t be too far away so there are four or five lads who are waiting to play so you can use that window for that. But the priority for me is to qualify in the Challenge Cup to give ourselves a fighting chance come the end of the season.
“But the real aim is to finish top eight [in the URC]. You see the league now and there is definitely a split, isn’t there? There is a top six and then there is going to be a hell of a scrap for seven and eight and we want to be in that scrap.
“The Leinster and Zebre games are huge games for us now. We play Glasgow in the Six Nations minus their internationals, same with the Scarlets, then various other games towards the end of that period where we don’t lose as many players internationally as others.
“Playing at home has been hard for 18 months, playing in what feels like an empty stadium, a half-full stadium, so to have the stand open for the Leinster game is huge and then to maintain that momentum for future home games will be massive second-half of the season.”
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Connacht sowing the seeds Stuart Lancaster URC