JACK CARTY AND Finlay Bealham will both make their 150th Connacht appearances in the province’s “must-win” Guinness Pro14 trip to Dragons on Friday evening [kick-off 7.35pm, TG4].
The western province sit second behind Munster in Conference B and hold a slim advantage in the three-way tussle for Champions Cup qualification having played two games less than both Cardiff Blues and Scarlets.
But they need to get back to winning ways following a disappointing defeat at home to Ospreys last time out, with head coach Andy Friend making seven changes for the meeting in Rodney Parade.
With Dave Heffernan, Ultan Dillane and the injured Quinn Roux all involved in Ireland camp, there are four changes in the pack where Shane Delahunt, Niall Murray and Gavin Thornbury all start, while Abraham Papali’i replaces Jarrad Butler.
Caolin Blade and Carty form a new-look half-back partnership while Matt Healy comes in on the wing in place of Alex Wootton, who drops to the bench.
“This is a must-win for us given results of the last few weeks,” Friend said.
“While our home form has been disappointing we’ve had honest reviews of what’s gone wrong and the reaction in training has been good.
“Our away form has been a positive for us this season, so we’ll look to keep that going tomorrow albeit against tough opposition and a tough place to go in Rodney Parade.”
Connacht (v Dragons):
15. John Porch
14. Peter Sullivan
13. Tom Daly
12. Peter Robb
11. Matt Healy
10. Jack Carty
9. Caolin Blade
1. Denis Buckley
2. Shane Delahunt
3. Finlay Bealham
4. Niall Murray
5. Gavin Thornbury
6. Paul Boyle (capt)
7. Conor Oliver
8. Abraham Papali’i
Replacements:
16. Jonny Murphy
17. Jordan Duggan
18. Jack Aungier
19. Oisin Dowling
20. Eoghan Masterson
21. Kieran Marmion
22. Sean O’Brien (Academy)
23. Alex Wootton
Subscribe to The42 Rugby Weekly podcast here:
I would have blade in the irish squad. He’s got something special about him.
Papalli needs a huge game doesent deserve to be starting in my opinion.
@sean: agreed , there has been a bit to much hype about him . butler sets the tone when he’s on field
@sean: give the guy a chance, hes played less than 5 games to date
@sean: biggest issue is fitness and tackling, I think fitness will only come from playing matches, and tackling just needs to be learnt – he’s still new enough to union. However, he definitely brings go forward ball and has pace. I know Connacht likes to fling the ball around, but sometimes we are just finding ourselves being tackled behind the gainline, especially when the offside line is being reffed properly. A good ball carrier will hopefully make sure the backs get front foot ball on occasion, which I think is what we are missing most. Excited by him, although hope he doesn’t decide to quick tap penalities as often!
@Joe Vlogs: totally agree no tap and go and please tackle low and with both arms. But he is some unit going forward. I wish him the best of luck…!
@jay bernard: He is 27 and been sent of twice and might have thrown the game away against ospreys. There is young Irish players that are missing out on crucial game time.
@sean: give him a chance!!
@sean: tbf to him both of those reds were incredibly harsh and not malicious but unfortunate, he offers amazing ball carrying ability, his decision against Ospreys was crazy, but we see those crazy decisions all the time, we didn’t look like we were going to get the win regardless, we have other Irish guys in the squad that have had the opportunity but haven’t stepped up to the mark, I think it would be crazy to suggest we should be given lads who aren’t good enough a shot just because they’re Irish, we need to progress our squad and the options within our academy aren’t forthcoming.
@Patrick Breen: name a few of the lads that weren’t good enough because I most have watched some completely different games to you
@jay bernard: he’s played fewer than 5 games due to being suspended for wreckless tackles, so that’s hardly an excuse for him. Was given a chance off the bench vs Ospreys and he threw away what ever chance we had of winning it. Agree completely with @sean, far better and younger options to choose from
@jay bernard: he’s played fewer than 5 games due to the fact that he was suspended for 2 wreckless tackles! He was given a chance against the Ospreys and ruined what ever chance we had left of winning that game. Agree completely with @sean. There’s far better and younger options to choose from
@sean: well, we need a ball carrier. We have very good ball-playing back row players, but against bigger sides we need a player who can punch holes and provide front foot ball, otherwise it will be like the Munster game where we can pass the ball all we want on the backfoot, but not break through tackles. I don’t see any other back row player in Connacht who we can trust to do that time and again. Yet in the few minutes we have seen Papaiili play, he has managed that aspect of the game quite well. Ulster have Coetzee, Munster have Stander.
@Joe Vlogs: totally correct!
@jay bernard: he’s played fewer than 5 games due to the fact he made 2 careless tackles and serving suspensions, so no one to blame but himself. We need a big ball carrier but in modern rugby you have to be able to do more than stick the ball up your shirt and go forward and so far he’s proven to be a poor tackler and a bad decision maker with the tap and go vs Ospreys. There’s been a few young lads given their chance in the back row and they’ve done well enough to justify selection.
@Joe Vlogs: he’s played fewer than 5 games due to the fact he made 2 careless tackles and serving suspensions, so no one to blame but himself. We need a big ball carrier but in modern rugby you have to be able to do more than stick the ball up your shirt and go forward and so far he’s proven to be a poor tackler and a bad decision maker with the tap and go vs Ospreys. There’s been a few young lads given their chance in the back row and they’ve done well enough to justify selection.
@Hugh O’Malley: his tackle in the Munster game was slightly high, granted, but I don’t think it was that bad – Delahunt was also sent off that game too. The tackle against Zebre was not a red card in my opinion – there wasn’t anything he could do to drop down given the Zebre player slipped into the tackle. He made one daft decision in the last game, but he also managed to give a lot of go forward ball in the same time frame. And you haven’t named any player who can provide the go forward ball that Papaiili has provided, so I’m yet to see who’s spot he is taking.
@Joe Vlogs: even at that, 2 red cards in 5 appearances isn’t exactly a good track record. With Munster having lost on the same weekend it would have been a massive 4 points against Ospreys. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see him go well but he just hasn’t proven himself yet.
.