Andy Friend and his wife Kerri have possibly seen more of Ireland this year than anybody else in Irish rugby. In one of the best decisions he says they’ve ever made, they purchased a motor home last January and Friend reckons they’ve already driven over 6,000km around the country.
They went through Leitrim, took the coastline in Donegal and drove back to Sligo, before subsequently hugging the coast for another two weeks around Kerry and Cork, finding bays for a swim and treks to satisfy his passion for cycling.
“The sun seemed to follow us for about 80 per cent of the time, before it turned a bit messy at the end of June, early July, but it is what it is. We had a great time.”
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“I reckon we’re all guilty of that. We all tend to leave our own shores and travel around someone else’s country but tend not to look at our own country. But I can tell you mate, it’s a beautiful country.”
With Kerri back in Australia seeing their granddaughter, Friend drove his new toy to Dublin last month when supporting Galway in the All-Ireland football final against Kerry, stopping off in Wicklow to take his bike for some spins and camp on the Saturday night, before coming home to Galway after the game.
And Galway is home now. Friend is entering his fifth season as Connacht head coach, his longest stint in one role during a coaching career which has taken him to Harlequins, the Brumbies, Japan and the Australian 7s.
Nor did Friend’s travels around Ireland prevent him seeing all of Ireland’s games in New Zealand.
Resilience
“I just loved their resilience after losing the first two games. In the first Test, the scoreline didn’t reflect the game in my view. But the first two games looked like heavy defeats and then going to Dunedin the second Test was a must-win.
“The style of rugby they played was really good to watch. I thought it was a brave style of football. I loved their starts. Every game they started so well. They came out of the blocks and said: ‘Here we are, what are you going to do?’
'Ireland were just so clinical the way they went about their work on both sides of the footy’
“Things bounced New Zealand’s way in the first Test to allow them get a few of those scores, which took the wind out of Ireland a touch. But after that in the second and third tests things didn’t bounce New Zealand’s way because they weren’t allowed bounce their way.
“Ireland were just so clinical the way they went about their work on both sides of the footy. When they had the ball I thought they were so clinical in the way they stretched them and when they didn’t have the ball I thought their defence was outstanding. Shy of that 15-minute spell at the start of the second half in the last Test, New Zealand didn’t look like getting across the line.
“The whole attitude, the physicality, the style of footy, the accuracy of what they did, I loved all of that.”
Connacht had three players in the Test series win – Bundee Aki, Mack Hansen and Finlay Bealham – while first-time tourist Cian Prendergast started both midweek games against the Maori All Blacks, although concussion left Dave Heffernan on the sidelines for the last two weeks.
Friend thought the way Aki played and spoke in captaining Ireland against the Maoris was “really special” and after two significant stints off the bench in the first and second Tests, he started the third.
“Mack missed the first Test with Covid but then he touches the ball and he just makes it look easy. Every time Finlay came on, he did exactly what was asked of him. He added physicality, intent. Poor old Heff [David Heffernan] didn’t have the luckiest tour.
“But what a brilliant tour for Cian to be on, and [assistant coach] Pete Wilkins and [masseur) Robbie Fox. Pete’s come back full of energy and fresh ideas, and I know that Robbie was flat out, which meant that he was doing a good job.
“For all of Irish rugby and Connacht rugby, it’s been such a boost.”
Anticlimactic campaigns
Ireland’s history-breaking tour also came after anticlimactic campaigns for all the provinces. Although they reached the knockout stages of the Champions Cup for the first time, Connacht finished 11th in the URC table, well short of qualification for next season’s Champions Cup, with nine wins and nine defeats in 18 matches of a wildly erratic season.
“We had some really good moments. They tended to be earlier on in the season but we definitely weren’t consistent and we dropped away, so that was disappointing – 11th in the ladder is not where we want to be.
“But it was also a season where we added so much of a foundation to the way we want to play and where we want to go with the team. I’m not prepared to accept that we needed to have that season, because we all wanted so much more out of it but at the same time I know that we’ve laid a really good base and it’s for us now to build on that.
“With another year of our new game style and some really good signings coming in, I think we’re going to be better for it.”
It’s been another high turnover out west this summer. All told, 11 players have been released or departed, such as Ultan Dillane to La Rochelle, while six have been promoted from the academy and another half dozen brought in from outside: the Leinster quartet of Adam Byrne, David Hawkshaw, Peter Dooley and Josh Murphy, as well as two 22-year-olds, Shamus Hurley-Langton, a ball-carrying backrower from Manawatu, and Byron Ralston, a talented winger cum centre from Western Force and ala Hansen, Irish qualified.
“Unfortunately, this is what we’ve had for the last four years,” Friend admitted. “I think the least we’ve let go is nine and the most we’ve let go is 12. We’ve had a rotation of 42 players in four years, which is massive, and for all sorts of reasons.
“Some players have retired, some have left of their own volition and some have not been re-contracted, but we’ve continued to bring through a stream of young academy players and sign potentially very good players.
“Our model is to find the rough diamond and polish him up, and we’ve done that with a few blokes,” he said, citing the examples of Colby Fainga’a, who they lost to Lyon two years ago, and Hansen, who like Prendergast has re-committed to Connacht.
Four of the six promoted academy players are homegrown. “That’s the other beauty of it, which is so important to our programme. It’s a compliment to Eric [Elwood] and the job that he has done. Mossy [Lawlor] and Collie [Tucker] were heavily involved in that, and over the last year and a bit it’s been Mark Sexton and Andrew Browne, so there are some really good things going on there with our academy.”
Opportunity
Returning to the Challenge Cup for the first time in four years fell short of their seasonal ambition but according to Friend, this gives them an opportunity to have a crack at that competition while aiming “one hundred per cent” at the URC play-offs.
‘We were guilty of turning over too much possession, and our transition from attack to defence wasn’t what it needed to be’
Their defence obviously needs improvement. Only four teams leaked more than the 67 tries and 502 points conceded in 18 games by Connacht last season. Friend attributed this to the looseness of their attack.
“We were guilty of turning over too much possession, and our transition from attack to defence wasn’t what it needed to be. We know the opposition are going to score but we want to make that harder for them. I know we’re going to be better across the board.”
Connacht have warm-up games in Castres and Sale in Athlone while the new 4G pitch is being laid in the Sportsground, which will be ready for the start of the URC, which he believes is a “brilliant” development.
Amid their pre-season, Friend has one other important engagement coming up, on August 13th. He will be one of many among the province’s staff taking part in a 218km cycle from The Sportsground to Sligo RFC as part of the fundraising campaign to support Claire Carpenter, wife of Connacht employee Ross Mannion. Carpenter, a Sligo native, suffered a stroke and funds are being raised to help her continuing rehabilitation in Dún Laoghaire.
It’s a cause that resonates with the Connacht head coach.
“Something tragic has happened to one of our own in Ross Mannion’s wife. You can be the club that talks about community and you can be the club that talks about ambition and belief, or you can be the club that when something like this actually happens, you get behind it.
“I love that with Connacht, it’s not just words on a wall,” he added in reference to one of their slogans, Grassroots to Green Shirts. “This young family whose world has been turned upside down and what the future holds for Claire will be changing every day, because that’s what happens when you have an acquired brain injury: the rate of improvement is very much an unknown.
“But what you do know is that life won’t ever be the same for that young family as it previously was and they’re going to need to have changes to their house, to the way they do things and the way the kids grow up.
Community
“So what we can do as a community as what we can do as a club, is get behind them and try to raise some much-needed funds, and that’s what the cycle is about. There have been two other really positive areas of support,” added Friend with regard to the GoFundMe page which has already raised over €100,000, as well as a raffle.
‘It reminds you of what life is all about. It’s about getting behind people when they’re most needy and trying to support them’
Friend started doing bicycle charity rides with Dean Richards in 2005 while at Harlequins, starting with a two-day cycle from London to Paris, raising €20,000 for a young player with an illness.
“That led to going to Bolivia and riding the Road of Death; we raised over €100,000 there. I’ve then done cycles from the French Alps to the Pyrenees, from Canberra to Mount Kosciuszko in Australia and the big cycle I did was for my wife Kerri when she had a traumatic brain injury,” he added, of his 5,000k ride from Cooktown to Canberra in 2011.
“Every time it’s had a really positive impact for the people for whom we were trying to raise funds, and it also reminds you of what life is all about. It’s about getting behind people when they’re most needy and trying to support them.”
On Saturday, August 13th, club members and Connacht Rugby staff, including Andy Friend and Eric Elwood, will take part in a 218km cycle from the Sportsground to Sligo RFC as part of the fundraising campaign to support Claire Carpenter, wife of Connacht employee Ross Mannion. The route will take in all five counties with stops in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo, Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo, Frenchpark, Co. Roscommon, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim, and finally Ross and Claire’s home in Coolaney, Co Sligo, before the final stretch to Sligo RFC.
The quickest and easiest way to support the charity cycle is by donating to the GoFundMe page. Volunteers can also help the riders at the various stops on August 13th. For more information, email info@connachtrugby.ie with the subject line ‘Care4Claire’.
