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Connacht Rugby vs Leinster Rugby
United Rugby Championship
The Sportsground, Galway
Saturday, 26th March 2022, 19:35

TV: Live: Premier Sports, RTE2

So another Six Nations championship is done.

Ireland scored the most tries/points and conceded the fewest yet were still second to the best team in the tournament (and possibly the world) in France. At times the new attacking style worked like a charm but it stuttered badly for long phases too when Ireland's handling skills couldn't match their ambition. But let's take a positive view that hopefully they are building towards something great next year and for once we can have a World Cup that isn't a bitter disappointment.

As the bulk suppliers to the Ireland squad Leinster are also the most likely to suffer the most injuries from the campaign and so it has proved again. Thankfully the backline and the back row have emerged relatively unscathed but the all important front five took a hammering with James Ryan, Ronan Kelleher, Andrew Porter and Ryan Baird all ruled out for various lengths of time. But with the European quarter-finals not until May hopefully some of them will be back by then but for that to matter Leinster will need to get past tomorrow's opponents Connacht.

Leinster and Connacht are normally feisty enough affairs but the two sides will be entirely sick of the sight of each other by Easter Sunday as they play each other three times in the next four weeks. After the URC match tomorrow Leinster will be back up in Galway in thirteen days time for the first leg of the Champions Cup last sixteen tie with the return leg on Good Friday in the Aviva. Now admittedly the Leinster team that starts tomorrow will be radically different to the one that starts in a fortnight as all the Ireland internationals will be back by then. The Connacht team will be less changed as they're only missing Bundee Aki, Mack Hansen and Finlay Bealham who get a rest after a busy Six Nations.

Connacht have had some great moments this season such as beating Munster, hammering Ulster in the Aviva and thrashing Stade Francais at home and they have played some really entertaining rugby too. But they struggle with inconsistency, they can be brilliant or awful, sometimes within the same match. In Europe they built up healthy leads at home to Leicester and away to Stade Francais only to lose both games in the last twenty minutes. In their last three league games they had fine come-from-behind wins away to Scarlets and at home to the Stormers.

But then the inconsistency came back to haunt them against Edinburgh. Edinburgh had come off three consecutive defeats to Leinster, Munster and Glasgow and in the first twenty minutes Connacht totally dominated and only poor finishing prevented them from leading much more than 8-0. If you switched off the match at that point and heard the final score was 56-8 you would have assumed it was Connacht who were the winners. Instead it was Edinburgh who ripped them apart with eight converted tries.

It was a stunning capitulation by Connacht and they've had three weeks to stew about it so maybe Leinster will receive the backlash. If Connacht are to have any chance of reaching the play-offs they'll need to win and Andy Friend has named a team captained by Jack Carty that features six players with Leinster roots in Tom Farrell, Tom Daly, Jack Aungier, Oisin Dowling, Cian Prendergast and Conor Oliver who'll all be itching to prove a point.

Leinster go to Galway off the back of a narrow defeat in Ulster in which they played quite well but failed to take their chances. Leo Cullen has made two personnel changes from the starting side. In the backs the return from injury of Ciaran Frawley at inside centre causes a reshuffle. Jamie Osborne moves out to outside centre, which in turn moves Rory O'Loughlin out to the left wing and Tommy O'Brien switches to the right. In the pack the only change sees Peter Dooley come in for Ed Byrne at loosehead prop. Academy back Chris Cosgrave will make his debut off the bench.

In the game at the RDS earlier in the season Connacht were really competitive in the first half but crumbled in the second as Leinster ran out 47-19 winners. Leinster don't have nearly as strong a bench this time though so this is likely to be a much more competitive affair all the way through.

by Jim O'Connor, © 2022-03-25