CONNACHT’S AIM THIS season is to break teams with a style of play that is “fast, relentless, adaptable.”
As such, head coach Andy Friend will have been thrilled with the manner of their comprehensive victory over the Bulls in the URC, as discussed in depth by Eoin Toolan and Murray Kinsella on today’s version of The42 Rugby Weekly Extra – an analysis podcast available to members of The42 every Monday.
Connacht found themselves trailing by seven points early in the game but recovered to blow their South African visitors away on a 34-7 scoreline, with Eoin picking out a key element of the victory for Friend’s men.
“You feared for them after the opening five minutes, the Bulls looked powerful and were getting offloads away,” said Eoin.
“They had that brilliantly-taken try and Connacht looked nervy. You think of Jack Carty getting charged down and his banana kick going out on the full, but it was a brilliant turnaround from Connacht to win emphatically.
“A key component to their win was the ball-in-play time. I noticed as I was watching just how long the sequences of play were and I’m pretty confident it would have been a strategy of Andy Friend and the coaching team to try and place that big Bulls side under physical duress by maintaining ball-in-play.
“It’s ironic because when the Bulls have teams in Loftus Versfeld at altitude, that’s their strategy – long sequences of ball-in-play time to fatigue opposition.
“But last weekend, it was the Bulls who fell into a massive hole. Ball-in-play time was 41 minutes.
“To put that in context, the South Africa v New Zealand game which is being earmarked as one of the best of all time, ball-in-play time was 32 minutes. Munster’s game against the Stormers was around 33 or 34 minutes, so that’s probably in around the average you’re getting at elite level.
“To have 41 minutes ball-in-play time was definitely a strategy for Connacht and it paid off for them.”
Eoin was impressed with the Connacht midfield, while he also highlighted the impact of scrum-half Kieran Marmion.
“Marmion was incredibly sharp and they utilised him really well in general play and off structured attack,” said Eoin.
“There was one left-hand-side scrum in the second half where he gets out and becomes a playmaker. By virtue of his speed, he gets outside the inside Bulls defence and it’s a lovely double-block play for Connacht to score.
“Their structured attacks were really sharp. The Tom Daly-Tom Farrell-Jack Carty axis proved really fruitful for them, with the first try coming off the back of that traditional 12-13 play. Farrell was really impressive. He has top-end speed but also power and skill in contact. The three of them combined again in the second half for Farrell to score.
“They played at really good speed and looked efficient in everything they did, with real accuracy and it was a big turnaround from the previous week.”
Meanwhile, Murray picked out the physicality of the Connacht performance as another key theme in this contest.
“We saw a real high in that regard,” said Murray. “I was as encouraged by their trench warfare as anything. There was a two-minute defensive set coming towards the quarter mark in the Connacht 22 when they eventually forced Johann Goosen to kick a bomb that Mack Hansen could mark pretty easily.
“Connacht had numbers on feet and really good hold/fold decisions around whether they were going to fold around the corner or had their eyes up picking out numbers in the attacking line.
“They were really aggressive and had good linespeed when they had numbers there. The technical quality of the tackles as well, the acceleration into the hits, and I thought Finlay Bealham stood out in that regard. He was really hurting Bulls ball-carriers and it almost took them by surprise.
“Jordan Duggan stood up there as well, which is really encouraging for Connacht given Denis Buckley is going to be sidelined for another few months.
“That, as much as anything, was encouraging and even if you look at the first try, it comes from a big maul success. I don’t think the Bulls expected that.”
Today’s podcast also saw Eoin and Murray discussing wins for Munster, Ulster, and Leinster, as well as breaking down the brilliant game between the Springboks and the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship.
Both of the lads picked Connacht men as their players of the week, while the ‘play of the week’ award went to a classy Wallabies try.
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