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By John O’Sullivan
Head coach Andy Friend says that Connacht will need to play a “smart” brand of Rugby in order to earn a victory at Thomond Park in Friday evening’s GuinnessPRO14 Rainbow Cup meeting with Munster.
The Westerners were narrowly defeated by the Southern province, 20-17, in the side's last meeting in March in a keenly contested interprovincial derby.
Despite the loss, Friend says there were plenty positives to take from the performance -- which he described as smart -- and he says applying those traits to Friday evening’s game will be crucial to any win.
“What we brought in that game at Thomond, more so in the game here(the December meeting of the team’s at the Sportsground), was that we defensively muscled up against them,” the Australian said.
“I thought our line out worked really well against them, in both attack and defence, and I thought we played a smart brand of Rugby, in terms of what we were doing with the ball, whether we were kicking it long or kicking for contestables. They were key areas that I felt worked for us and we have to make sure we replicate that and some on Friday night.”
Friend, meanwhile, paid tribute to Quinn Roux after the Irish international announced he will leave the province at the end of the season after seven years in Connacht green.
While the second row will be missed, the head coach wished him the best of luck for the future and thanked him for his service.
“He’s given an enormous amount to this province,” the former Australian sevens coach said.
“He leaves with our blessing and our respect. We would love to keep him, of course we would, but at the end of the day, people make decisions. It was a lengthy process we went through and a decision was made at the end.
“We have already begun the process of recruiting a new second row and we will obviously make an announcement about that in due course.”
Elsewhere, second row Gavin Thornbury says that Friday’s renewal of rivalries with Munster will provide players the opportunity to put their hands up for international selection with the Irish national team.
Ireland recently announced summer tests against the USA and Japan in Dublin and Thornbury says that competing against other players in the fold for national team squad berths will give him -- and every other eligible player -- the platform to showcase their abilities and further their international ambitions.
“They are always big,” the 27-year-old said of the interprovincial clash.
“Every time an interpro is played, It’s played fully and 100%, no matter who is playing. It’s another chance to put yourself in the shop window. All I can do is make sure I get myself as mentally and physically in as good a position as possible to put in a performance on Friday. I’m looking forward to that.”
Irish line out coach Paul O’Connell attended Connacht training last week and Thornbury said it was a great opportunity to show a member of the national team coaching staff their qualities close up.
“It was good to get him down and show him what we’re doing here,” he said.
“He would have always been someone I looked up to, so it was nice to meet him and introduce myself and just have a conversation with him. We had a good conversation and I was pretty happy with that. Hopefully, now I just back it up with performances and that’s probably the biggest thing.”
Thornbury, who joined the Westerners in 2017 from Leinster, was superb in the last game between the teams, a 20-17 home win for Munster in March, and he said he is keen to make a similar impression on Friday and help the team go one better and claim a win.
“Yeah, it was good,” the Dublin native said when asked how he would assess his performance in his last trip to Thomond Park.
“I think a lot of things probably came off for me that mightn’t have come off on another night. Obviously, I was fully gutted with the result. I thought we put ourselves in a position where we could have won the game and unfortunately it didn’t come through.
“Personally, some stuff came off that I was really happy with but there’s a lot to keep working on.”
