Huge French test in store for depleted Connacht
HAVING watched his inexperienced pack get eviscerated by Leinster nine days ago, Andy Friend will send his wounded Connacht forwards out against a juggernaut Montpellier outfit, loaded with South African and Georgian muscle.
Shorn of frontline forwards such as Finlay Bealham, Quinn Roux and Gavin Thornbury, the hosts were ruthlessly exposed by Leinster.
That 42-11 home defeat will have sobered up a squad who came into this season with high hopes and greater ambitions. There will be no easy games in Connacht’s pool this season with Montpellier, Toulouse and Gloucester for company.
They welcome Vern Cotter’s star-studded squad to the Sportsground today before travelling to Toulouse next Saturday.
Despite their injury problems – they are also without the services of Tiernan O’Halloran and Kieran Marmion this afternoon – Connacht can still field a side loaded with quality. Ultan Dillane, keen to prove a point after his early cut from Joe Schmidt’s World Cup training squad, is back to bolster the tight five while the first-choice backrow of Colby Fainga’a, captain Jarrad Butler and Paul Boyle is as good a loose forward trio as any in Europe.
A lot will rest on the young shoulders of New Zealand-born tighthead Dominic Robertson-McCoy who is deputising for Bealham.
Connacht’s scrum took a pummelling from Andrew Porter and Cian Healy last time out and they simply must find a way to gain some traction in this area against Montpellier’s giant Georgian loooshead Mikheil Nariashvili and promising French tighthead Mohammed Haouas.
If they can gain a level of parity up front, Connacht have plenty of game breakers out wide, with Jack Carty ready to unleash the likes of Bundee Aki, Matt Healy and Niyi Adeolokun.
The worry is that Montpellier’s giant pack – with the Du Plessis brothers primed to make an impact from the bench for good measure – will strangle the life out of Connacht. Friend’s men will want to avoid the trench warfare this afternoon and play their high-tempo, running game.
‘If we get into an armwrestle, we are in strife, so we need to avoid it,’ said the Connacht head coach.
‘There will be some set-piece battles and I back our scrum to handle that, and our maul, but they are not the areas we want to play in, so we want to move them around and get them chasing.’
The message to this Connacht team today is clear: keep it fast and loose.