Lam brings hope to Connacht for new season
In the run-up to the new rugby season, our rugby correspondent Daniel Pitcher previews the four provinces ahead of the Rabo Direct Pro 12 openers on Friday. First up is Connacht and tomorrow he will take a look at Ulster.
Connacht continue to build up to a brand new and exciting journey this weekend as the Rabo Direct Pro 12 makes it’s return from the summer break.
.
It’s a new era for the province as Pat Lam replaces Eric Elwood as head coach.
Lam, who is capped once for New Zealand, retired from playing in 1999 after picking up a Heineken Cup winners medal with Northampton who narrowly beat Munster 9-8 in Cardiff. Lam also captained Samoa in three World Cups.
His life as a coach got off to a rather successful start. He was at Auckland where he won the NPC/Air New Zealand Cup/ITM Cup in 2005 and 2007, and now Lam is ready to make his mark in the West of Ireland.
He comes into a side which both Eric Elwood and Michael Bradley before him did so well to build up, and there is a great air of optimism in and around Galway that Lam can bring something special, not only in the Pro12, but the Heineken Cup too.
Lam’s first act as coach this summer was to name three captains for the coming season. Gavin Duffy, John Muldoon, and Michael Swift will all share the roll on match days.
Duffy has been captain before and took the side to battle in the Province’s first ever Heineken Cup journey in 2011/12. Duffy is also an Irish international who has been capped 10 times at senior level and will be looking to play his way into Joe Schmidt’s plans for the autumn internationals and next year’s Six Nations.
.
John Muldoon from Portumna brings plenty to the plate having captained in the 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons. He has three international caps to his name but at 31, he may find it difficult to break into the squad again with plenty of young players around the country bidding for it too. He is just two games away from breaking into the special 200 club at 198 appearances.
Meanwhile, Michael Swift is the longest serving player Connacht have ever had. Speaking of the 200 club he was the first player to reach that particular stage having played for the province for 14 years.
Between the seasons of 2011 and the end of the season just gone, Connacht finished eighth twice in a row with only one more match won in the season past.
With a new era about to begin out west they will be out to improve on that and match or even beat their own record which saw them reach the semi-final of the old ‘Celtic Cup’ where they were denied a final spot by a single point against Edinburgh.
.
Connacht’s player to watch will certainly be Craig Clarke who arrives in Galway after being part of the Chief’s team that won the Super rugby final this year, his second successive winning honour.
Connacht have lost all three of their pre-season games against Castres 42-31, Wasps 7-31 and Newcastle Falcons 23-10 but there will have been plenty to work on improvements.
Come Saturday’s kick-off against Zebre in the Sportsground, they will have had two weeks solid training and should go out all guns blazing against the Italian outfit.
