Connacht continue their United Rugby Championship fight in South Africa against the Lions this weekend, determined to bag a win to keep their top-eight hopes alive.
With just three matches remaining, Connacht are now seven points adrift of the Stormers, who now lie in eighth place after their victory over the Irish province last weekend.
However, Connacht interim head coach Cullie Tucker continues believes it is still within his side’s capabilities.
“It is a realistic possibility,” he said. “We firmly believe it. We’re still in the fight. We’re still in the hunt, and that was the goal of coming on this trip [to South Africa].
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He said he was “very proud” of how Connacht pushed the Stormers to secure two bonus points; adding that his players “were unrelenting”.
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“Everything they did, how they kept coming back, kept showing up. So you know, once those traits are evident in them, we’ll be in every battle, every fight, and all going well, we will be coming back from Africa with two games to look forward to.”
Too often on the losing side by a score or two, Tucker says his players continue to “show up”.
“If you keep showing up and keep creating that’s when you will get the rewards, and I’d be very worried if we were not in the fight in every game, but we are, so I believe that it will come right for us.”
Connacht are heading to South Africa’s Highveld only a day before kick-off, aware of the effect of high altitude.
“For sure, the ball will fly longer. The ball will fly higher. Discipline has to be key because, you know, they’re knocking over penalties of 60m last weekend. So obviously there’s the fatigue element, which we’ll have to manage through the game. But you know, ultimately, it’s still a game of rugby and we have to impose ourselves.”
The squad is in good health, while the injured Hugh Gavin and Shane Bolton are “tracking well”.
Honours are shared between the sides in games played in Galway, but Connacht produced a 33-30 away win in 2021/22, which gives them real hope of repeating that feat in South Africa. The home side is also without a win in their last five games.
“The fact that we’ve scored so many tries, the fact that we’ve had so many near misses, 15 bonus points, by far the most of any team. It’s just been fine margins at times that have cost us a fair amount of victories this year, unfortunately.”
