Connacht Look To Bounce Back Against Dragons
Connacht will continue their Magners League campaign this weekend when they travel to take on the Newport Gwent Dragons at Rodney Parade.
Connacht are hoping to complete this segment of Magners League matches with a victory before commencing their Amlin Challenge Cup campaign the following week.
The Dragons are four points ahead of Connacht in the Magners League table, having won two of their four games to date.
They defeated Ulster 23-6 in their opening match at Rodney Parade but went down 23-14 to Leinster at the RDS a week later.
The Welsh region maintained their 100% home record with a bonus point 30-19 win over Glasgow Warriors in their third outing and were defeated 27-3 by Munster at Musgrave Park last Sunday.
Meanwhile, Connacht coach Michael Bradley said that one of the most disappointing aspects of last Friday’s 30-6 defeat to Ulster was that they failed to perform in front of a big crowd.
He praised the crowd for the way they turned out in numbers and got behind the side. At 2,435 spectators, it was Connacht’s biggest attendance at the Sportsground so far this season.
“We asked them to come to the Sportsground in big numbers and they answered the call,” he said.
“It was disappointing then not to produce a display for them. In fairness, the crowd stayed behind the team throughout.”
The former Ireland scrum half said their failure to build phases meant they were facing an uphill battle.
“We could not build phases. We had opportunities from turnovers but we were not organised to make the most of them.
“Ulster dominated from the start and a poor start to the second half meant that we were not even in a position to fight for the one point.
“It was very disappointing. We had a big crowd and we did not perform for them,” added Bradley.