Although Ireland’s World Cup frontliners are all now back in the provincial mix, Connacht will be without both Bundee Aki and Mack Hansen for their forthcoming URC games in South Africa against the Sharks and the Bulls.
Despite his superb form for Ireland in the World Cup, which resulted him in being shortlisted for World Player of the Year, it transpires that Aki has been troubled by a hamstring issue which is liable to sideline him for a month or so while Hansen has an ankle injury.
“Bundee and Mack are still rehabbing knocks that they brought home from the World Cup,” revealed head coach Peter Wilkins after neither player was included in a 29-man squad for the two-week South African trip.
“Mack, hopefully, will be available after this South Africa trip; Bundee probably a couple of weeks after that so they are not far away but they do need these three or four weeks to get their bodies right.”
Regarding Aki, Wilkins added: “He’s had an ongoing hamstring issue that he’s had to manage but particularly with the exertions of the World Cup and this window after the World Cup that he needed to rest anyway. It’s a good time to try and get that right and get it as good as possible for the season to come.”
Embarking upon his tenth season with the province, Finlay Bealham has been named in the travelling squad, which offsets the loss of Jack Aungier. Arguably Connacht’s most improved player last season, Aungier has been ruled out of the trip after being removed for an HIA in Connacht’s last-ditch loss in Edinburgh on Saturday night.
Aungier, Aki and Hansen join Shayne Bolton, Santiago Cordero, Shane Jennings, Oisin McCormack and Gavin Thornbury on the injury list, meaning that Bealham will be backed up by Dominic Robertson-McCoy and Sam Illo.
Wilkins said that Robertson-McCoy, who turned 30 last Friday, “is playing some of his best rugby during his time with us so far”, and noting the athleticism and power of the 22-year-old Illo, a product of Old Wesley who moved from the Leinster academy in 2021, said: “I think this is a massive season for Sam.
“It’s important for us to keep developing him but also to give him enough exposure in terms of game minutes so that he can get some of those learnings that come with being part of a match-day ‘23′ on a more regular basis. He’s got to earn that right as well, but we are excited with how he is tracking.”
The Sharks’ 12-10 defeat against Zebre last Friday night left them bottom of the table after an opening month in Europe also featuring losses to Munster, Leinster and the Ospreys. But Wilkins countered: “Whether the Springboks are there or not they are a different beast at home and four weeks on the road is a long time for any team. They’ll have taken the learnings from that.
“I’ve no doubt they’ll have huge motivation playing at home again in local conditions. It will be a good test for us but we’ll be up for it.”
Also drawing on his five seasons in Super Rugby with the Queensland Reds, Wilkins prefers to have these demanding South African treks earlier in the season, when players are relatively fresh mentally and physically, than toward the end of the campaign, as it also affords an opportunity to develop cohesion, albeit coming in rounds two and three last season was “a little bit early”.
Setting off on Monday night, the Connacht squad will be based in Durban for the majority of the two weeks, with their opening game against the Sharks this Saturday at 3pm Irish time, before flying to Pretoria ahead of their clash with the Bulls at the same time on Saturday week. Both games will be broadcast live on RTÉ.
Despite also coming on the back of a trip to Edinburgh, Wilkins is targeting two wins.
“They’ll be two very challenging games in terms of the physicality and the conditions we’ll play in but the way our rugby is progressing we’d be confident that we can give them both a really good game and if we can get everything right on the night, I think we can assert our game on them.”
In Jack Carty and JJ Hanrahan it’s hard to recall Connacht having two such experienced outhalves and Wilkins accentuated their influence on the rest of the squad in training as well as having both options in match-day ‘23s’.
“The key thing with JJ was the hunger,” added Wilkins, who first spoke with Hanrahan when Connacht were in Cape Town for their semi-final against the Stormers last May. “He just talked about the stage he was at in his career and what he still wants to achieve personally but also what he wanted to bring to a group and into a club.
“So, to have someone with that drive, at this stage of their career, backed with that experience is a great asset. We’ve benefitted from that, and I think Jack is benefitting from that, and it’s brilliant to have both of them available.”
While three home wins were an important buffer for what he described as “an important block for us”, Wilkins admitted that “our away form is something that we’ve looked at very closely”.
On returning from South Africa, Connacht host Leinster on Saturday, December 3rd and Bordeaux Begles six nights later in the Champions Cup before facing Saracens away.
“Leinster itself is a short turnaround for us when we come back with the travel and the game that it is but it’s another game that this or any other group of Connacht players doesn’t need a whole lot of motivation for.”
Connacht Squad
Forwards: Finlay Bealham, Denis Buckley, Peter Dooley, Oisín Dowling, Dave Heffernan, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Sam Illo, Sean Jansen, Joe Joyce, Tadgh McElroy, Darragh Murray, Niall Murray, Conor Oliver, Sean O’Brien, Dominic Robertson-McCoy, Cian Prendergast, Dylan Tierney-Martin
Backs: Caolin Blade, Jack Carty, Tom Farrell, Cathal Forde, JJ Hanrahan, David Hawkshaw, Diarmuid Kilgallen, Tiernan O’Halloran, John Porch, Byron Ralston, Colm Reilly, Andrew Smith,
