Connacht and Munster are both missing notable players for their BKT URC round five meeting at Thomond Park on Saturday (7.45pm ).
Connacht will be without Bundee Aki, Finlay Bealham, Caolin Blade, Shayne Bolton, and Cian Prendergast, all of whom are on national duty. On the injured list are Denis Buckley (hamstring ) and long-term absentees Oisin Dowling (knee ) and Temi Lasisi (knee ).
Munster’s list includes Ireland’s Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Thomas Ahern, Tadhg Beirne, and former Connacht man Tom Farrell. Brian Gleeson and Edwin Edogbo are ruled out of both Ireland and Munster action with respective elbow and HIA injuries, while Andrew Smith is sidelined with a hamstring injury.
Despite the loss of Connacht’s big names, head coach Stuart Lancaster remains confident victories will come soon, saying there is strong belief in his squad that winning is within them. He insists Connacht is not in any crisis, having lost two of three meetings since their opening-day victory over Benetton.
“Three games in, we've just lost on the final kick,” he says of Connacht heartbreaking defeat to the strong South African outfit.
“The first game [URC] we won. In two pre-season games, we won by 50 and 40, so we're not like in a crisis moment.
“You know, one kick here, one moment there - against the Bulls we could have won. We've got a strong internal belief in the direction we're going. But we know it's a huge challenge come Saturday night.
“Everyone's frustrated when you lose, but are the reasons for losing down to systemic, huge issues that we've got to try to solve, or is it down to little things that we know that we can do better? We’re not many miles away from where we want to be.”
As a performance-based coach, Lancaster sees “the trajectories going in the right direction” as Connacht now head to Thomond Park. Despite the narrow defeat to the Bulls at Dexcom, he says belief should be high.
“They [Bulls] came fully loaded on the back of a defeat, and we were one kick, one moment away from beating them. So, belief should be high, our belief is high, but we recognise the challenge that's coming. We need to make sure we go down to Limerick believing we can win.”
Munster in Thomond Park will not be easy. They currently lie in second place on the BKT URC table with four wins from four - the same as leaders DHL Stormers. Connacht, with one win from three, are currently 10th - their match against Scarlets having been postponed did not help Lancaster’s side gain momentum.
Having watched Munster’s emphatic 31-14 win over Leinster in Croke Park with interest, Lancaster says it is time to “roll our sleeves up and get stuck into into preparations for Munster”.
