McKeon happy to be back in the fold

CONNACHT back-row Eoin McKeon is happy to have gotten some game-time ahead of the end of the season after a frustrating few months on the sidelines.

McKeon first picked up a hamstring injury in the win over Cheetahs at the Sportsground in November, while subsequent calf trouble meant he only got back into the side for the defeat to Edinburgh at the end of March.

But since then he has shown his best form again and is thrilled to be facing the summer and pre-season with a clean bill of health.

“It was a fairly innocuous injury I had,” said McKeon. “It was nothing serious but it just lingered. It is probably the longest time I’ve been out for a non-serious injury.

“But I’m happy to get back in I felt it was going well before it so it’s good to get a couple of games now before the season ends again.”

Connacht face a tough test tonight against the conference leaders Glasgow Warriors. When the sides last met in Galway earlier this season Dave Rennie took the bragging rights against his former understudy Kieran Keane in an 18-12 win.

Playing on the 4G surface at Scotstoun, Connacht expect Glasgow to run plenty of ball at them, and according to McKeon stopping them at source and nullifying their offloading game and breakdown work is key if they are to upset the leaders.

“They always put out a good side that’s hard on the ball. Thinking back on some of the reviews from their games, we haven’t got the breakdown right.

“We haven’t got there early enough to neutralise that sort of issue. I think we probably put a bit of a focus on it this weekend and looking to get on top of them.

“Generally if a back-row plays well against another back-row it goes a long way to getting the result in the game. We’ll do our best to get that breakdown sorted.”