Sleepy Westerners must swoop to conquer Ospreys for sake of own credibility
WHEN Andy Friend sat down with his boss Willie Ruane this month to talk about extending their working relationship, some of the conversation would have harked back to their first meeting in 2018.
In one sense, it might even have replicated chats between so many other Connacht chief executives and head coaches down the days and years.
We got a brief window into the room this week from the Australian, who will imminently sign an extension with the province.
The context was prompted by our reference to the all-too-familiar Connacht motif; their trope as the happy-go-lucky David slinging occasionally accurate slingshots at Goliaths before, once awoken, the West slumbers once more.
While so many wallowed in their shock scalp in Dublin for understandable emotional reasons, the detached professional will point at the two home defeats, contrived in two entirely different, but equally catastrophic manners over the Festive season.
Which represents the real Connacht?
Well, both, in actual fact.
And therein lies the perennial problem, an itch scratched but once, gloriously, when Pat Lam’s side scorched the earth in 2016.
A deadening story of occasional defiance, soundtracked by folksy whooping and hollering from the diffident masses, but always a familiar ending.
One that often involves a defeat to an uninspiring outfit like, let us imagine, the Ospreys.
Change
It’s a story that has to change and Friend is no nearer finding the answer than so many of his predecessors.
He is, though, getting closer. “That’s dead right mate. I reckon from the minute I walked in that’s one of the first things I sensed.
“There was this feeling that we were good when we came up against inter-pro teams. I remember the phrase was ‘we always get up for interpros, Friendy.’ “So I was like, ‘”Why don’t we get up for every game? We’re pulling on the same jersey?’
“I believe we’ve made strides in that, but we’re human. We don’t get up for every game, there’s no doubt we’ve suffered from that this year as well.
“One of those games was Ulster, who I thought brought better energy than we did. That was an interpro.
“So we’ll still have days when we don’t bring that energy, but they’re becoming less and less and it’s not just based on whether they’re interpro games.”
Connacht’s haphazard man
agement of end-games returned to sharp focus when, albeit after contriving a winning position from a hopeless one against Munster, they seemed to be between around seven different decisions when messing up a scrum-five against a team short two members.
The team has copped some flak but, as Ultan Dillane told us this week, there were also messages being sent down from upon high which would hardly have aided the already flustered ditherers on the field.
Friend harangued his side publicly in the aftermath but, in the less stormy aftermath, a collective review of the squad’s decision-making policies – the latest, in fairness, following the Bristol farce – prompts promise that cooler heads will prevail from this day forth.
You would hope they don’t need them today against a side they should dispatch; Toby Booth’s team will play ball, but the home side should be able to play smarter as they seek to adjust their poor home record.
Play-offs may still beckon in this season’s ever-changing landscape. Connacht just want consistency and completing unglamorous tasks like tomorrow’s with little fuss fits the bill.
Verdict: Connacht
Connacht v Ospreys, Sportsground, 3.0, TG4, Eir Sport