Duffy on the wing as Connacht take on lowly Dragons

Dara Bradley

CONNACHT captain Gavin Duffy will line out in the unfamiliar left wing position as he starts his first game tonight (Friday) since September, as RaboDirect Pro 12 action returns with an away clash with Newport Gwent Dragons at Rodney Parade (7pm).

Duffy, who scored a try against Treviso in round eight with a seven minutes cameo role from the bench last month, has been sidelined with injury for several weeks. Duffy is more accustomed to the full-back position but during his injury absence, youngster Robbie Henshaw has excelled in that role and he retains the number 15 jersey for the trip to Wales.

Eric Elwood had a mini forward crisis to contend with this week having been shorn of the services of Mike McCarthy, who is included in the Ireland squad that faces Argentina in Dublin on Saturday, and John Muldoon, who will be sidelined for up to three months after damaging knee ligaments in Ireland’s rout of Fiji at Thomond Park over the weekend.

The head coach is also without George Naoupu, who is still struggling with an ankle injury, forcing Elwood to field back-row and second-row partnerships that have enjoyed little game-time together.

How effectively Michael Swift and Mick Kearney, and Andrew Browne, Willie Faloon and Eoin McKeon, gel tonight will go a long way to determining how competitive the visitors will be. Elsewhere, hooker Ethienne Reynecke is named among the replacements following his return from injury this week while winger Matt Healy, who is also named on the bench, could earn his first cap for the province. 

As Connacht prepare to embark on the second ‘tranche’ of games of the 2012/2013 season, it is perhaps timely to take stock, and look at the progress or otherwise, to date compared with last year.  

Connacht are in a slightly worse league position at this stage of the campaign this year, compared with the same stage last season, which eventually ended in an all-time high league finish.

In the first tranche of eight games last season, Connacht won three matches and received three losing bonus points in their five defeats, and so had accumulated 15 league points heading into the busy November to January schedule.

This season Connacht have accumulated 14 points from their first eight matches – three wins, one with a try bonus, and a losing bonus leaving them in eighth place – but they’ve also picked up a win in October in the Heineken Cup and so are arguably in better shape now than last year.

At this stage in 2011, Connacht were also two defeats into what turned out to be a record breaking losing streak that stretched to 14 losses on the trot. Connacht cannot countenance a similar ‘whitewash’ of games in the middle chunk of this season; and it won’t happen.

Outside of the festive season inter-provincials against Leinster and Munster, in which anything can happen, Connacht’s other four league games before the January break are against the Dragons (twice), Edinburgh and Zebre, matches that are all eminently winnable. 

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.