Connacht fans expected their new signing from Gorey to make an impact in the back row but nobody foresaw that it would be former Irish U20 captain Paul Boyle who would be the standout player in the early days of Andy Friend’s reign.
The signing of Robin Copeland from Munster was a significant coup for Connacht but as he recovers from a quad injury, it’s his fellow Wexford man who is setting the world alight in the Sportsground.
Boyle, who skippered Ireland at the World Rugby U20 Championship in Georgia in the summer of 2017, moved from the Leinster academy to Galway a year ago in the hope of getting more game-time and developing.
He got a total of 23 minutes under Kieran Keane last season, the Connacht coach who was sacked after just 10 months in the job, and who threw him in at the deep end against Munster in Thomond Park in January.
Former Australian sevens coach Friend used the three pre-season games against Brive, Wasps and Bristol to get to know his squad. He made it clear that reputations and age meant nothing, the slate was clean for everyone.
Boyle, now 21, has revelled in the opportunity. He impressed in his maiden PRO14 start against Glasgow Warriors and came close on Saturday to becoming the first Connacht forward in history to score a hat-trick in competitive action. His excellent lines of running saw him chalk up a brace by 21 minutes and then unselfishly he set up Niyi Adeolokun for their fifth try to complete the rout late in the game.
WATCH:
— eir Sport (@eirSport) September 7, 2018
All the tries and much more from Kingspan Stadium as @UlsterRugby won for the second week in a row with the last kick of the game. #GuinnessPRO14 #ULSvEDI pic.twitter.com/EeLecuXVVU
“Young Boyler has got enormous promise,” said Friend. “He has grown with every performance, with every opportunity he gets. I said at the start, it doesn’t matter about your age, if you are good enough you are going to play and he is a testimony to that. He is playing good rugby.”
This was, in many ways, a game Connacht just couldn’t afford to lose. They travel to Edinburgh next weekend, then host Scarlets and Leinster.
Zebre, with former Connacht coach Michael Bradley at the helm, did the double over them last season but the Parma side’s hopes of a fourth successive win over the westerners never looked like getting off the ground.
Boyle’s brace and the boot of Jack Carty had Connacht 17-3 in front at the break on a miserable wet day in Galway and when loosehead Giosue Zilocchie and hooker Oliviero Fabiani were binned inside three minutes of each other, Connacht turned the screw with impressive scrum-half Caoilin Blade scoring. The equally impressive out-half Carty sent a grubber through for Eoin Griffin to show good hands to slide over for the bonus point before Boyle set Adeolokun up for a fifth try. The only blot on a very good display came when Giulio Bisegni got a late try for the Italians.
Tries: P Boyle (2), C Blade, E Griffin, N Adeolokun; Conversions: Carty 2; Penalties: J Carty.
Tries: G Bisegni; Conversions: F Brummer; Penalties: C Canna.
T O’Halloran; C Kelleher, E Griffin, K Godwin, M Healy; J Carty, C Blade; D Buckley, D Heffernan, F Bealham; G Thornbury, Q Roux; S O’Brien, J Butler, P Boyle.
K Marmion for Blade (50), C Faina’a for O’Brien (50), S Delahunt for Heffernan (54), D Robertson-McCoy for Bealham (59), C O’Donnell for Buckley (61), J Cannon for Thornbury (61), N Adeolokun for Kelleher (64), C Ronaldson for Godwin (71).
E Padovani; M Bellini, G Bisegni, N De Battista, G Venditti; C Canna, M Violi; A Lovotti, O Fabiani, G Zilocchi; D Sisi, G Biagi; M Tevi, J Meyer, R Giammarioli.
D Rimpelli for Lovotti (6-17)(61), J Tuivaiti for Tevi (h-t), M Ceciliani for Venditti (47), R Tenga for Giammarioli (47), Giammarioli for Zilocchi (57), Venditti for Fabiani (58), G Palazzani for Violi (59), F Brummer for Canna (59), T Boni for De Battista (59), A Tauyavuca for Biagi (61).
L Linton (SRU).