No Fresh Injury Concerns For Connacht Ahead Of Brive Rematch
There were no significant new injuries from Connacht’s Challenge Cup and British & Irish Cup matches against Brive and Richmond last weekend, as the westerners gear up for the reverse fixtures in Galway.
Dominic Robertson McCoy is continuing his rehabilitation from thumb surgery and will be out of action until the end of 2017, while fellow prop JP Cooney is rehabilitating from a recent hamstring injury and will return to action in early 2018.
Experienced lock Andrew Browne is continuing his rehabilitation from Achilles surgery and will be out of action until early 2018, but in positive news, Eoin McKeon will return to full training this week following his recent hamstring injury against Cardiff Blues.
Of the province’s other back rowers who have been sidelined, Jake Heenan is recovering from shoulder surgery and will be out of action until April 2018, Jarrad Butler is continuing his recovery from recent knee surgery and is due to return during the festive interprovincials, while Sean O’Brien is recovering following shoulder surgery and will be out of action until early 2018.
Meanwhile, in the backs division, Craig Ronaldson (calf) and Peter Robb (hip) both played 40 minutes for Connacht Eagles away to Richmond last Saturday with no ill-effects. Stacey Ili (shoulder) also played for the Eagles and scored a try in their 38-17 bonus point win.
Rory Scholes is continuing his recovery following the removal of his appendix and will return in early 2018, and Cormac Brennan will return in early 2018 following shoulder surgery.
With spirits high in camp as Connacht return to the Sportsground following their bonus point heroics in Brive, backs coach Nigel Carolan said: “The most important thing for Connacht is consistency. When you can go out and beat Munster and the Cheetahs, and then drop your standards. Hopefully the game against Brive is like Oyonnax in the first block.
“That kicked us off to a run of four wins and hopefully Brive can do the same. We have some games coming up and that level of consistency is really important. We can’t afford to be complacent. On our trips to Cardiff and Zebre, we failed to spark, but at home, certainly in the latter stages of the first block, we were good.
“We haven’t played here (at the Sportsground) for a few weeks so the lads are looking forward to being back out in front of a festive home crowd, and producing the performance that can achieve the result we badly need again.”