SCANNING THROUGH HIS roster, Andy Friend looked at a list of names this week and ended up using the same word. Quinn Roux, Ultan Dillane, Cillian Gallagher, Niall Murray and Oisín Dowling.
Out, out, out, out and out.
Gavin Thornbury is the only fit second-row available.
As a result the Connacht coach has had to shuffle his deck, bringing Eoghan Masterson in from the back-row for tonight’s game in Edinburgh (eir Sport 1, 7.35pm kick-off).
Evidently the lengthy list of absentees is far from ideal – especially when you consider that talisman Bundee Aki is also away.
Yet these can be revelatory moments for a coach, especially one like Friend who vocally encourages the supposedly junior members of his panel to grow into leaders.
“We have targeted a 50 per cent win-rate away from home and given that there will only be six this season, here’s another one and we need to make sure we take it and if we don’t we need to win three of the remaining four,” said Friend.
Winning away is easier said than done, however, and it’s only a couple of weeks since Friend made a similar sort of request before Connacht went across to Wales to play Cardiff. They lost that one 29-7.
Sam Arnold is tackled by Olly Robinson as Cardiff proved too strong for Connacht. Dougie Allward / INPHO
Dougie Allward / INPHO / INPHO
“Edinburgh and Cardiff play a similar style of game,” the Connacht coach said. “We knew what we needed to do [in Cardiff] and we did it on the whole. We did it very well.
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“On the four occasions out of the 21 that we chose not to do what we said we were going to do [stick to the exit plan], we leaked 21 points.
“The evidence is pretty clear for us, stick to the game plan, stick to the task and it will work for us.”
It could work here because Edinburgh are a team suffering from a bit of a mini-crisis at the moment, highlighted by the way they allowed Ulster come from behind to claim a semi-final victory in last month’s (indeed last season’s) Pro14 semi-final. They’ve since been well beaten by Ospreys, which prompted their head coach, Richard Cockerill, to deliver some harsh home truths to his players.
“There are not many natural leaders within the Scottish game, particularly,” he said. “I don’t think lack of leadership is necessarily just an Edinburgh issue.
“My experience of working here and with other teams is that the Scottish guys are quieter and a bit more subdued. They’re good guys and they work hard but they’re not natural, overt personalities or leaders. So we’ve got to keep working on that.
“They’ve got the knowledge. We’ve just got to get it out of them in the key bits to manage certain situations.
“It has been touched on before. We have a lot of nice guys that are good human beings, but when they get on the field they need to know it’s a different scenario.
“We need to be a little more cussed and a little bit more bloody-minded and we need to be a bit nastier about how we go about our business. We need [to have] as many of those people as we can.”
This evening the nice guys will be tested by a hungry pack of visitors from the west. Connacht to win.
Edinburgh v Connacht, live, eir Sport 1, 7.35pm kick-off
Connacht (v Edinburgh):
15. John Porch
14. Sammy Arnold
13. Tom Farrell
12. Tom Daly
11. Alex Wootton
10. Conor Fitzgerald
9. Caolin Blade
1. Denis Buckley
2. Shane Delahunt
3. Jack Aungier
4. Eoghan Masterson
5. Gavin Thornbury
6. Paul Boyle
7. Jarrad Butler (captain)
8. Abraham Papali’i
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Andy Friend is stuck between a lock and a hard place
SCANNING THROUGH HIS roster, Andy Friend looked at a list of names this week and ended up using the same word. Quinn Roux, Ultan Dillane, Cillian Gallagher, Niall Murray and Oisín Dowling.
Out, out, out, out and out.
Gavin Thornbury is the only fit second-row available.
As a result the Connacht coach has had to shuffle his deck, bringing Eoghan Masterson in from the back-row for tonight’s game in Edinburgh (eir Sport 1, 7.35pm kick-off).
Evidently the lengthy list of absentees is far from ideal – especially when you consider that talisman Bundee Aki is also away.
Yet these can be revelatory moments for a coach, especially one like Friend who vocally encourages the supposedly junior members of his panel to grow into leaders.
“We have targeted a 50 per cent win-rate away from home and given that there will only be six this season, here’s another one and we need to make sure we take it and if we don’t we need to win three of the remaining four,” said Friend.
Winning away is easier said than done, however, and it’s only a couple of weeks since Friend made a similar sort of request before Connacht went across to Wales to play Cardiff. They lost that one 29-7.
“Edinburgh and Cardiff play a similar style of game,” the Connacht coach said. “We knew what we needed to do [in Cardiff] and we did it on the whole. We did it very well.
“On the four occasions out of the 21 that we chose not to do what we said we were going to do [stick to the exit plan], we leaked 21 points.
“The evidence is pretty clear for us, stick to the game plan, stick to the task and it will work for us.”
It could work here because Edinburgh are a team suffering from a bit of a mini-crisis at the moment, highlighted by the way they allowed Ulster come from behind to claim a semi-final victory in last month’s (indeed last season’s) Pro14 semi-final. They’ve since been well beaten by Ospreys, which prompted their head coach, Richard Cockerill, to deliver some harsh home truths to his players.
“There are not many natural leaders within the Scottish game, particularly,” he said. “I don’t think lack of leadership is necessarily just an Edinburgh issue.
“My experience of working here and with other teams is that the Scottish guys are quieter and a bit more subdued. They’re good guys and they work hard but they’re not natural, overt personalities or leaders. So we’ve got to keep working on that.
“They’ve got the knowledge. We’ve just got to get it out of them in the key bits to manage certain situations.
“It has been touched on before. We have a lot of nice guys that are good human beings, but when they get on the field they need to know it’s a different scenario.
“We need to be a little more cussed and a little bit more bloody-minded and we need to be a bit nastier about how we go about our business. We need [to have] as many of those people as we can.”
This evening the nice guys will be tested by a hungry pack of visitors from the west. Connacht to win.
Edinburgh v Connacht, live, eir Sport 1, 7.35pm kick-off
Connacht (v Edinburgh):
15. John Porch
14. Sammy Arnold
13. Tom Farrell
12. Tom Daly
11. Alex Wootton
10. Conor Fitzgerald
9. Caolin Blade
1. Denis Buckley
2. Shane Delahunt
3. Jack Aungier
4. Eoghan Masterson
5. Gavin Thornbury
6. Paul Boyle
7. Jarrad Butler (captain)
8. Abraham Papali’i
Replacements:
16. Jonny Murphy
17. Paddy McAllister
18. Dominic Robertson-McCoy
19. Cian Prendergast
20. Conor Oliver
21. Colm Reilly
22. Peter Robb
23. Tiernan O’Halloran
Edinburgh:
15. Jack Blain
14. Ernoi Sau
13. James Johnstone
12. Chris Dean
11. Jamie Farndale
10. Jaco van der Walt
9. Nic Groom (captain)
1. Pierre Schoeman
2. Mike Willemse
3. WP Nel
4. Lewis Carmichael
5. Andrew Davidson
6. Magnus Bradbury
7. Ally Miller
8. Mesulame Kunavula
Replacements:
16. David Cherry
17. Jamie Bhatti
18. Murray McCallum
19. Jamie Hodgson
20. Connor Boyle
21. Henry Pyrgos
22. Nathan Chamberlain
23. George Turner
Referee: Adam Jones [WRU].
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Connacht Edinburgh Guinness Pro14