Connacht bring back the heavy hitters

Date Published: 14-Oct-2010

Dara Bradley

 ERIC Elwood has made seven changes to the side that suffered a shock 23-21 defeat away to Italian semi-professional outfit Cavalieri Prato last weekend as they look to get their Amlin Cup campaign back on track when French heavyweights Bayonnais roll into town tonight (7pm).

Elwood has ‘beefed up’ his pack bringing frontliners Seán Cronin, Jamie Hagan, Mike McCarthy and Ray Ofisa back into the starting XV for a must win clash with the Pool 1 table-toppers. Irish international Gavin Duffy returns at full-back in a re-jigged backline that also sees Keith Matthews and Frank Murphy getting the nod.

Darragh Fanning, who was impressive in his debut in Italy, is rewarded for his effort and retains his place while another of last week’s European debutantes new signing Barry Fa’amausili retains his place on the bench.John Muldoon captains the side again after making his return last Saturday to competitive rugby following a broken arm sustained against New Zealand in the summer.

This will be Bayonnais’s first competitive clash with an Irish province and they will be eager to make it back-to-back victories after they impressively defeated Harlequins 16-12 away from home last weekend.

Bayonnais has a budget that would be the envy of even some Heineken Cup sides – €15.9 million for the 2010/2011 season – and they have already spent big this year on 13 new summer signings including French fly-half Benjamin Boyet, All-Black flanker Troy Flavell, South African full-back Joe Pietersen and Tongan prop Tonga Lea’aetoa.

They join the ranks of France international flanker Rémy Martin, Craig Gower an Italian fly-half and New Zealand lock Ross Filipo. Splashing the cash seems to have worked so far for Pyrénées outfit as they have already beaten big clubs in the domestic League, Top 14, including Bourgoin, Clermont Auvergne, Agen and Brive.