| New players to feature in Harlequins game | |||||
|
 Four of Connacht’s summer signings will make their debut for Michael Bradley’s side in Friday’s pre-season clash with Harlequins at The Stoop. And a few more of the new faces — including former academy backs Eoin Griffin and Tiernan O’Halloran — are included among the replacements. Griffin, from Knocknacarra in Galway city and a former Irish U-18 international, is a product of the Corinthians club and Colaiste Iognaid and he will be 19 next month. O’Halloran (18), a native of Clifden who was capped for the Irish Schools earlier this year, attended Cistercian College in Roscrea and helped Leinster schools win the inter-pros last season. He began his rugby with Connemara All-Blacks. Both young players, who have been promoted to professional development contracts, will be in the squad for Friday’s game which will see Miah Nikora start at out-half in a backline which will include Brian Tuohy on the right-wing. Bernie Upton will start in the second row with Mike McComish at No.8. Connacht will be without most of their Churchill Cup players including skipper John Muldoon, hooker Sean Cronin, scrum-half Frank Murphy and centre Keith Matthews. Coach Michael Bradley is pleased with the way pre-season training has gone and is looking forward to seeing some of the new signings in action. Connacht travel to play Gloucester on Saturday week before taking on Rotherham Titans at the Sportsground on Friday, August 28. Connacht open their Magners League campaign the following Friday at home to the Ospreys. “Pre-season, as always, is about game-time so there’ll be an opportunity for everybody in the three games. But the Harlequins game will be an opportunity for us to introduce a lot of our new signings this year,” said Bradley “Our pre-season has gone very well and the lads have trained hard. We’re happy with the intensity the players have shown and the progress they’ve made.” Connacht: T Nathan; B Tuohy, N Ta’auso, A Wynne, F Carr; M Nikora, C O’Loughlin; R Loughney, A Flavin (C), R Morris; M Swift, B Upton; M McCarthy, J O’Connor, M McComish. Replacements (from): A Browne, K Campbell, E Griffin, J Hagan, C Higgins, D Murphy, D Nolan, R Ofisa, T O’Halloran, B Wilkinson. |
| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 12 August 2009 10:00 ) |  |
