New Connacht era dawns with home tie against Zebre
ORDINARILY, a season opener against the lowly Italians, Zebre, wouldn’t do much to set pulses racing. It’s slightly different this year. Not because of Zebre – no, they’re still box office flops compared to most clubs that visit the Sportsground. It’s because there’s a lot riding on this game.
Every team wants to start the 2013/2014 season with a win, but with a new manager, New Zealander Pat Lam, now in situ at Connacht, the adage ‘Tús maith leath na hoibre’ is perhaps more pertinent than the debut game of most seasons.
He won’t admit it, but Lam is under pressure from the off. His predecessor, Eric Elwood, is a living legend and everything the former Samoan international does while in Galway will be benchmarked against what the Mervue native achieved for his province. It’s perhaps unfair a comparison but that’s the legacy he’s inherited. He’s got to deal with it.
Lam is also an outsider. Connacht has embraced outside coaches before but that doesn’t mean it will come automatically – most fans don’t know his managerial track record and so Lam will have to earn the respect of the Connacht Clan who part with money for season tickets and merchandise to support their team.
He won’t be judged on game one, that would just be absurd even if they lose to Zebre who haven’t won in the competition yet, but he needs a win to set out his stall, show the brand of rugby he wants his Connacht to play and earn some credits among the College Road faithful.
He needs to build up goodwill; so too do the players – the reputation of new superstar signing Craig Clarke precedes him but that also heaps pressure on the New Zealander to perform here as well as he did when captaining the Waikato Chiefs to silverware success in the past two seasons. There are a lot of noughts on the end of his pay-check; he’s got to prove he’s worth them, just like Dan Parks did last season.
The same is true of the ‘old guard’. Connacht stalwarts who almost picked themselves – if they were fit – during Elwood’s time, might find that they’re not the flavour of the month in the new era, and that they’ve a point to prove to the coach. It’s healthy competition and it starts this weekend.
In his first pre-match press conference on Tuesday previewing the Zebre game, it was put to Lam that he’d used over 40 players in the pre-season friendlies and he indicated that squad rotation and using young, academy players would be a feature of his tenure. In fairness, that policy was set in train by Elwood but Lam insisted “if you’re good enough you’re old enough”, which bodes well for the likes of Conor Finn and other youngsters looking to make the breakthrough.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.