Heffernan relishing winning feeling

IT’S turning out to be a season of noticeable achievements for Connacht and stand-in skipper Dave Heffernan is hopeful they will continue their winning run when they play Leinster on Saturday.

Connacht will head to the home of the PRO14 and European champions on the back of a five-match winning run. And, having won in Belfast earlier in the campaign for the first time in half a century, they are now fully focused on achieving a rare win in Dublin – they have managed that only once in the professional era.

Victory on Saturday would constitute their second-longest winning run and take them within two of their record achieved under Pat Lam three seasons ago.

“There is serious competition for every position and we’re definitely going in the right direction,” said Heffernan, who will be 28 next month.

“There are a lot of positives and the whole atmosphere around the place is good. We’re winning games in which we probably would have fell off last year.

“There are a lot of good things happening. Winning is a habit and to get five wins on the bounce is really good.”

While Heffernan, who has chalked up 108 appearances for his native province, was delighted by the team’s performance in Perpignan last Friday night, he knows they will face much tougher opposition against the three Irish provinces in the coming weeks.

“We’re coming into a huge block of games. We’re playing three of the top sides in Europe, starting with Leinster, which is going to be a massive test.

“After that, we have two games at home against Munster and Ulster. They are the kind of games everyone wants to play in,” added the hooker.