Play-Off chasing Connacht Rugby are ready to embrace the pressure as they head into their make-or-break Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash with Edinburgh Rugby.
Going into the final weekend of the regular season, the west of Ireland province are one point outside the all-important top eight in ninth place. To make the Vodacom URC Play-Offs, they need to win at the Hive Stadium on tomorrow night (19:45 UK) and hope that other results go their way.
Scrum-half Ben Murphy acknowledges it won’t be easy to resolve their side of the equation as they travel to in-form Edinburgh. “They have won the last three games on the bounce,” said the 25-year-old. They have looked a lot more dangerous the last few weeks as well. They are throwing the ball around a lot more. So we know there is a serious threat and we are taking it as seriously as it comes.
“There’s pressure on the game, there’s no getting away from that. You either shy away from it or you walk into it head first. That’s what we plan on doing Friday night. There is more of an embrace of pressure now in this group. We know it’s going to be there, we know it’s going to be the same again this week, but we now feel like we have got tools to combat that pressure and get into our flow. I think that’s been a big plus for us this year.”
It’s been some turnaround from Connacht during what has been very much a season of two halves.
They only won three of their first 10 Vodacom URC matches to leave the Play-Offs looking a distant prospect. But, since then, they have recorded victories in six of their last seven in the league to put themselves right back in the mix.
“We’ve gone through a bit of pain. We didn’t have the start to the season we wanted,” admitted Murphy. But, every week, we felt like we were getting closer. Then we started a bit of a win streak and that’s given us confidence that what we are doing is working.
“The buy-in we have had from the whole squad has been immense, especially the last couple of months where the games are coming thick and fast. Everyone has just gone head first into it and it’s working well for us.”
Murphy’s half-back partner Josh Ioane echoes this point of view. “We had some painful games, some close losses, games we should have won,” said the Auckland-born All Black. “But then came the victory over Glasgow and we also won our first interpro against Ulster. That sort of got into the boys’ heads. Those were two teams at the top of the table that we were competing with. From there, it just became a habit.
“The whole year we have been training really hard and it’s been cool to see the growth in the team. We have found some real confidence coming into the back end of the season. We have been going well.”
Connacht’s latest success was the 26-7 bonus point victory over Munster Rugby at Galway’s Dexcom Stadium in Round 17. “There was a lot of pressure going into that game,” said Ioane.
“But you could sense the confidence in the warm up. You could just feel we were there, while there was real excitement around the supporters.
“We were into the wind in the first half which meant it was going to be a bit tricky to exit. So we came up with a plan that we were going to have to hold on to the ball a little bit. As the game unfolded, the boys were just winning collisions, getting on top. We found ourselves down in their half and getting points. We were happy overall.”
Now comes the crucial clash with Edinburgh. “We have been preparing the best we can,” said former Highlanders and Chiefs fly-half Ioane. “We have got our work done. Now it’s books down and trust what we have done and just go out there and whatever happens happens.”
toy dogwatch
The cricket pitch is 20.12 meters (22 yards) in length and 3.05 meters (3.33 yards) in width. The length of 22 yards is considered a chain, which was used as a standard of measurement for land during the 18th century. The chain is 1/10th of a unit of measurement called furlong, which is the average length of land that a team of workers could plough in one day.