PAUL BOYLE WILL be hoping for an early birthday present when Connacht take on Toulouse tomorrow in the sort of Heineken Champions Cup fixture when prompted the Wexford native to move west from Leinster to showcase his talents.

He will be 23 on Tuesday and with eleven starts and one appearance off the bench so far he is well on target to matching the 22 games he played in his breakthrough season at the Sportsground last term.

“I grew up watching this competition and the last couple of years we have been striving to get into it. Now that we are here we don’t want to let this massive opportunity slip.

“It is playing against teams like Toulouse, one of the best in Europe, that is what we have been looking for the last two years. Now that we have you just can’t let these type of opportunities slip and we know that we have to put in a good performance on Saturday.”
His swashbuckling style has made him a fans’ favourite at the Sportsground and while the competition for the Irish back row is intense, Boyle knows he’s not far off and is following a very simple philosophy in that regard.

“I just want to play as best as I can. I know from talking to guys around here, from talking to members of the management team here who have been in contact with them, if you are playing well you are going to get picked.

“You can see that with the likes of Jack Carty and Bundee going to the World Cup. If you are playing good enough rugby you are going to get picked. That is all I am focused on, playing the best rugby I can for Connacht and seeing where that gets me.”

Connacht’s outside hopes of advancing to the knockout stages of the Heineken Champions Cup for the first time are hanging in the balance but a win over four-time champions Toulouse tomorrow should keep them alive in the competition for the final round in Montpellier.

Boyle said they need to rediscover the sort of clinical form which netted them some excellent results at the start of the season and which saw them go toe-to-toe with an injury-ravaged side in Toulouse in November.

“There were parts of Toulouse that were good but we didn’t come away with anything either. We will be looking to more of the start of the season, and looking to the training pitch as well where there have been good things going on. We are picking out small parts of each game and we haven’t quite put it together yet. That is what we are looking to do on Saturday.

“It is tough, in a team that is not performing too well, to really shine and do that. With the few boys we have back in this week, with how training has been going, I think we are going to put in a good performance. Then from an individual point of view it is easier to stand out as such.

“I actually don’t mind who I play against, once I am playing I don’t really care. It is the bigger teams I want to play against. I want to play against the Leinsters the Toulouses, these big teams. That is where you want to test yourself, test yourself against the best to see where you actually stand,” added Boyle.