DESPITE MAKING AN excellent start to the game, scoring a fourth-minute try and looking composed early on, Connacht found themselves in a hole at half time against the Sharks last weekend.

27-7 down in Galway, they were also hit by injury as starting out-half Josh Ioane was forced off at the break.

David Hawkshaw came on in Ioane’s place and though the former has some history as a number 10, it was starting inside centre Cathal Forde who moved into the out-half spot for the second half.

Forde is not unfamiliar with the position, having played his underage rugby there, made his Connacht debut at number 10 in early 2022, and moved there during a few games since. Still, the Galway man has been a number 12 for most of his senior Connacht career.

If anyone had any doubts about Forde’s comfort in changing duties for the second half, they were quashed within minutes of the restart. A brilliant try by Forde changed the momentum of the game and he played a big role in Connacht’s impressive 36-30 comeback victory.

His score showed the attacking class that 23-year-old Forde brings to the party.

With Connacht having made little headway with their ball-carrying in the preceding phases, Forde goes to his attacking kicking game to exploit space behind the Sharks’ defence.

This left-footed chip is a brilliant bit of skill. Chip kicks are fiendishly difficult to nail because even the slightest miscalibration or inaccuracy can see the ball drop too short or travel too far.

Forde’s kick is perfectly weighted.

We can see here how calm Forde is in the moment he chips. His head is down, focusing on an accurate ball drop to allow him to kick it end-over-end.

Even while it’s a relaxed strike, the chip requires a slight snap to the connection, Forde drawing his foot back down immediately after striking rather than following through.

Hansen is able to gather the ball just in behind the Sharks’ frontline defence without breaking stride, meaning he doesn’t have to slow down and potentially get caught from behind after catching.

Forde and Hansen are clearly on the same wavelength here and it would be interesting to know which of them identified the space and called the chip.

Sharks are in that area of the pitch where backfield positioning can sometimes be an issue. Many defences operate with just one backfield defender when they’re in their own 22 or just outside it, but slightly further upfield and they’ll have two backfield defenders.

In this instance, fullback Jordan Hendrikse [yellow below] has moved up from the backfield onto the right edge the defensive frontline.

But the Sharks’ only remaining backfield defender, out-half Siya Makusu [red below] is positioned towards the left-hand side of the backfield, rather than giving himself scope to cover both sides more comfortably.

That leaves chipping space for Connacht.

In truth, the perfection of Forde’s chip kick means that even if Makusu had been in a more central starting position, Hansen would have been able to field and get a pass away before any tackle attempt.

As it is, Hansen has more time to consider his options as Makusu closes towards him. The best option is Forde, whose immediate action after chipping is positive. His next thought is to get upfield at all costs.

We can see above that Sharks scrum-half Bradley Davids grabs out at Forde after missing with his blockdown attempt, trying to impede him, but Forde assertively barges past looking for a second touch.

And he gets it as Hansen runs directly at Makusu to fix him and delivers the pass inside to Forde, who is screaming for the ball.

In a flash, Connacht are back in the game thanks to Forde’s excellent combination with Hansen.

They never looked back from there as Forde helped to direct them to overhaul the Sharks with three more tries, the out-half adding three conversions and a last-minute penalty along the way.

As ever, Forde defended with intent. At 6ft 2ins and close to 100kg, he’s well able to mix it and one of his tackles in the second half felt like a defining moment in the game.

Springboks centre André Esterhuizen had run amok in the first half on his URC debut for the Sharks, scoring two tries and generally causing havoc. But Forde changed the story with this hit on ‘André the Giant.’

The Sharks are numbers-up but Forde closes aggressively from the backfield to shut the play down on Esterhuizen. He stops the big South African in his tracks and while Esterhuizen does get the ball away after a brief tussle, the offload goes to ground.

More important here is the physical statement Forde makes with Connacht still a point behind. The man who shredded Connacht in the first half has finally been stopped.

It’s worth noting that Forde also did a good job at inside centre for the opening half of this match, with his highlights including this tidy work to slip centre partner Piers O’Conor away in the second minute.

It’s a standard ‘blocker’ play from Connacht off the scrum as scrum-half goes direct to 12, who has 13 running a short front-door line as the 10 offers an option out the back.

Forde does a good job of posing a running threat to the defence himself, accelerating straight up the pitch with the ball in two hands to keep all options open.

With Forde threatening the outside shoulder of scrum-half Davids, Sharks centre Esterhuizen is worried about the threat on his inside shoulder and that causes him to very briefly sit down on his heels, rather than advancing onto O’Conor earlier.

Forde and O’Conor read the situation well. Watch below how O’Conor subtly runs an ‘overs’ line at a late stage to take him away from Esterhuizen’s shoulder and instead through his arms. 

This is sharp execution of basic skills from Forde and O’Conor, with Forde then showing his habit of working upfield looking for a second touch.

While O’Conor doesn’t return the pass with Forde getting tracked from the inside, the linebreak leads to Connacht’s opening try.

Of course, none of this comes as a surprise to Connacht fans, who have grown accustomed to Forde’s quality at inside centre over the last two seasons.

In the opening round of the URC two weekends ago, Forde delivered another demonstration of his powerful carrying for this try against Munster.

Forde blasts through Munster out-half Tony Butler and wing Thaakir Abrahams, using his right arm twice to keep himself up off the ground and propelling towards the tryline.

Forde, who beat 36 defenders and made 10 clean breaks for Connacht last season, can be relied on for the unglamorous carries off set-piece that are a nuts-and-bolts job for any inside centre.

But Forde also has the subtler, softer skills, including an ability to preserve or exploit space.

Watch below as he takes a pass from out-half Ioane and then delays his pass as he squares up to send hooker Dave Heffernan into a hint of space, allowing him to get an excellent offload away.

This combination of the classier skills with his combative streak has made Forde a real fans favourite in Connacht.

The exciting thing is that the 23-year-old, who has played for the Ireland U20s and Emerging Ireland, continues to get better.

- This article was updated at 9.12am on 2 October to correct ‘closely’ to ‘closes’ in the 26th paragraph.