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Shayne Bolton is into his third season with Connacht Rugby having joined in the 2021/22 season as a centre from South Africa. He now finds himself on the wing where he is flourishing.
Last season was a tough one for the man from Pretoria with injuries, and while he had his injury issues at the start of this campaign, Bolton has played in the last three games with eye catching performances in each one as he continues to grow in the green jersey.
"The last few weeks have been great for me"
"I'm thankful to be out on the pitch again doing what I love"
"The injury periods for me have been tough but it is made so much easier with the group of lads we have here in Connacht and the setup we have with our physio and S&C team who do a great job"
If you have seen Bolton at full speed you know the man has wheels to burn, with every team the question is asked about, who is the fastest on the team and Shayne gave his answer on the matter.
"I would say I am up there but I'm not sure if I am the fastest"
"We wouldn't usually do races or competitions but I know Diarmuid Kilgallen has the fastest time recorded on the gps devices we have"
Having come over as a centre, last season saw Shayne develop his game on the wing with Galwegians RFC here in Galway where he got plenty of game time to adjust to the new position.
"It was great to get those minutes under the belt with Wegians last season"
"I learned a lot from my time last season about what is needed when moving to the wing and I have some great heads around The Sportsground to keep feeding me info like Mack Hansen, John Porch, the younger lads as well"
"Obvisouly with Mack being an international winger I do watch him close during training with what he does, when he decides to leave the wing, his defensive decisions and so on"
This Saturday Connacht travel to France where they take on Lyon in Round 3 of the Champions Cup which Bolton is excitied for.
"It's a big game and we have are targets set with what we want to achieve this weekend"
"We're going over to win and we know if we play to the best of our ability we will come away with a bonus point win"
"We have to be clincial and make sure we're in control of everything we do with the ball"