THERE WAS A time and it wasn’t very long ago when a Pro14 game could be dismissed as inconsequential. But that was before the league reinvented itself as the URC, before South Africa’s big four started bullying their European cousins, before Connacht and Munster started the 2022/23 season so poorly.
After a year of decline — 14 defeats out of 24 matches last season, three out of three this term — the hard business of reaching the URC play-offs, never mind next season’s Champions Cup is already becoming a talking point for Connacht. Lose to Munster tonight (kick-off 7.35pm, TG4) and they are staring at the possibility of reaching the half-way point of the season with just one win to their name.
To be fair to them, they must be thinking a sadist planned their fixture list, putting them away to three of last season’s semi-finalists in their first three games, at home to Munster tonight, followed by Leinster next, later Ospreys and Munster away. Only one of their opening eight URC games, Scarlets at home on Friday week, looks easy.
Tonight’s one is anything but. While Munster have been hard on the eye, you just never know when they might click and regular Sportsground watchers will have been perturbed by the sight of Joey Carbery named at full-back for tonight’s match because it was here, four years ago, that he lit the place up with his display at 15 in a Munster win.
For their own part, Connacht have named their strongest team of the season so far. The absence of Cian Prendergast because of the Emerging Ireland tour is nothing short of a pain in the backside for each and every one of them, while the lingering effects of Bundee Aki’s red card in round two of this competition is really beginning to hurt.
And yet, any team with Kieran Marmion, Jack Carty and David Hawkshaw at 9, 10 and 12 has to be respected. They too have gone for an out-half at full-back, Conor Fitzgerald having fond memories of putting one over Munster when he walked through the Thomond Park gates during Covid times, for the once-off Rainbow Cup tie.
Hawkshaw starts at centre tonight. Deon van der Merwe / INPHO
Deon van der Merwe / INPHO / INPHO
So their attack looks good. But that isn’t Connacht’s problem. It’s their defence.
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Already this season they have conceded over 100 points. Last year they coughed 20 or more in 17 of their 24 matches. Sharks hit them for 41, Glasgow for 42, Leinster for 45 one week, 47 the next, 56 another time, 56 the tally Edinburgh also ended up with.
So even though it is just gameweek four of the season, Connacht are at a crossroads. Win here and who knows where the momentum could take them? Lose and your money will be on them losing again next Friday against Leinster, in Swansea later this month against Ospreys, at Thomond Park in round 8 against Munster.
There is some optimism, though. Carty, their captain, is back. Their front row of Buckley/Heffernan and Bealham is the strongest one they have but getting all three men fit and on the field at the same time has been problematic. There is also the positive of having lock Gavin Thornbury fit again, the security of knowing that if either he or Oisin Dowling tire, that replacement lock, Niall Murray, is on the same level.
Then there is the newly-laid 4G pitch. They are the ones who have trained on it every day this week and who have got used to the speed of the ball’s bounce; Munster have to wait until kick-off to adjust to that issue.
Finally, there is history. For all the things Connacht got wrong last year, it’s easy to forget they also got plenty right. Against Stade Francais, Bulls, Ulster, Stormers and yes, Munster, they were victorious, and in four of those wins, brilliant.
Brilliant is one word you can’t use to describe Munster’s first three performances of the season, the defeat at Dragons an absolute shocker.
While freshness has arrived in the form of a newly appointed coaching team, and also the first competitive starts for Patrick Campbell and Conor Phillips on the left and right wings last weekend, results have been poor.
Campbell has been a breath of fresh air. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
That will be tolerated for a year, you’d imagine, if an emphasis on youth becomes a defined and well explained philosophy. A week ago Graham Rowntree, their head coach, spoke about his belief in blooding youngsters. This is a club where those words will be heard by a receptive audience.
In any case, Campbell and Phillips’ selections tonight are a necessity as three wingers, Andrew Conway, Keith Earls and Simon Zebo, are out injured.
We want to see more of them, of backrowers John Hodnett and Alex Kendellen when they recover from injury; of Thomas Ahern when he returns from Emerging Ireland’s tour of South Africa, of the old Munster way in a new setting.
“You don’t just go into a club and decide to put in a type of framework and system and expect it just to click straight away,” their new attack coach, Mike Prendergast, said earlier this week.
It’s true. You can’t. Patience is needed. The only problem is Connacht won’t care about Munster’s agenda. They’ve their own issues to be concerned about. Tonight’s match is as massive for their season as it is for Munster’s. When has that ever been written about a round 4 match in the Pro14/URC before?
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Connacht and Munster are at a crossroads - whoever loses tonight has issues to address
THERE WAS A time and it wasn’t very long ago when a Pro14 game could be dismissed as inconsequential. But that was before the league reinvented itself as the URC, before South Africa’s big four started bullying their European cousins, before Connacht and Munster started the 2022/23 season so poorly.
After a year of decline — 14 defeats out of 24 matches last season, three out of three this term — the hard business of reaching the URC play-offs, never mind next season’s Champions Cup is already becoming a talking point for Connacht. Lose to Munster tonight (kick-off 7.35pm, TG4) and they are staring at the possibility of reaching the half-way point of the season with just one win to their name.
To be fair to them, they must be thinking a sadist planned their fixture list, putting them away to three of last season’s semi-finalists in their first three games, at home to Munster tonight, followed by Leinster next, later Ospreys and Munster away. Only one of their opening eight URC games, Scarlets at home on Friday week, looks easy.
Tonight’s one is anything but. While Munster have been hard on the eye, you just never know when they might click and regular Sportsground watchers will have been perturbed by the sight of Joey Carbery named at full-back for tonight’s match because it was here, four years ago, that he lit the place up with his display at 15 in a Munster win.
For their own part, Connacht have named their strongest team of the season so far. The absence of Cian Prendergast because of the Emerging Ireland tour is nothing short of a pain in the backside for each and every one of them, while the lingering effects of Bundee Aki’s red card in round two of this competition is really beginning to hurt.
And yet, any team with Kieran Marmion, Jack Carty and David Hawkshaw at 9, 10 and 12 has to be respected. They too have gone for an out-half at full-back, Conor Fitzgerald having fond memories of putting one over Munster when he walked through the Thomond Park gates during Covid times, for the once-off Rainbow Cup tie.
So their attack looks good. But that isn’t Connacht’s problem. It’s their defence.
Already this season they have conceded over 100 points. Last year they coughed 20 or more in 17 of their 24 matches. Sharks hit them for 41, Glasgow for 42, Leinster for 45 one week, 47 the next, 56 another time, 56 the tally Edinburgh also ended up with.
So even though it is just gameweek four of the season, Connacht are at a crossroads. Win here and who knows where the momentum could take them? Lose and your money will be on them losing again next Friday against Leinster, in Swansea later this month against Ospreys, at Thomond Park in round 8 against Munster.
There is some optimism, though. Carty, their captain, is back. Their front row of Buckley/Heffernan and Bealham is the strongest one they have but getting all three men fit and on the field at the same time has been problematic. There is also the positive of having lock Gavin Thornbury fit again, the security of knowing that if either he or Oisin Dowling tire, that replacement lock, Niall Murray, is on the same level.
Then there is the newly-laid 4G pitch. They are the ones who have trained on it every day this week and who have got used to the speed of the ball’s bounce; Munster have to wait until kick-off to adjust to that issue.
Finally, there is history. For all the things Connacht got wrong last year, it’s easy to forget they also got plenty right. Against Stade Francais, Bulls, Ulster, Stormers and yes, Munster, they were victorious, and in four of those wins, brilliant.
Brilliant is one word you can’t use to describe Munster’s first three performances of the season, the defeat at Dragons an absolute shocker.
While freshness has arrived in the form of a newly appointed coaching team, and also the first competitive starts for Patrick Campbell and Conor Phillips on the left and right wings last weekend, results have been poor.
That will be tolerated for a year, you’d imagine, if an emphasis on youth becomes a defined and well explained philosophy. A week ago Graham Rowntree, their head coach, spoke about his belief in blooding youngsters. This is a club where those words will be heard by a receptive audience.
In any case, Campbell and Phillips’ selections tonight are a necessity as three wingers, Andrew Conway, Keith Earls and Simon Zebo, are out injured.
We want to see more of them, of backrowers John Hodnett and Alex Kendellen when they recover from injury; of Thomas Ahern when he returns from Emerging Ireland’s tour of South Africa, of the old Munster way in a new setting.
“You don’t just go into a club and decide to put in a type of framework and system and expect it just to click straight away,” their new attack coach, Mike Prendergast, said earlier this week.
It’s true. You can’t. Patience is needed. The only problem is Connacht won’t care about Munster’s agenda. They’ve their own issues to be concerned about. Tonight’s match is as massive for their season as it is for Munster’s. When has that ever been written about a round 4 match in the Pro14/URC before?
Connacht:
Replacements:
Munster:
Referee: Chris Busby [IRFU].
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Connacht grudge Munster