Friend's Connacht formidable foes

Stormers will face semifinal opponents who are used to digging deep

11 May 2023 - 06:12
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Connacht in action against Leinster in a Champions Cup round of 16 match at The Sportsground in Galway last year.
Connacht in action against Leinster in a Champions Cup round of 16 match at The Sportsground in Galway last year.
Image: Oisin Keniry (Getty Images)

As much as captain Steven Kitshoff will be desperate to meet this Saturday's sunset with the glow of victory as he signs off at Cape Town Stadium for the Stormers, Connacht's director of rugby Andy Friend is on a personal crusade to drag his team into the United Rugby Championship final.

The Stormers meet Irish side Connacht in the semifinals of the URC at 4pm and there's more than a place in the final at stake.

Friend wants to deliver a telling parting shot before he leaves the job he took up in 2018.

While Kitshoff sipped Champagne after last year's final against the Bulls, Friend has not tasted success, if measured by silverware, at the club.

The only trophy Connacht has won in their 138-year history is the Pro12 title in 2016 when they stunned Leinster in the final. Not that Friend, the former Brumbies coach, necessarily defines himself by the bulge of the club's trophy cabinet.

Investment in others

His investment in the game is mostly in those around him. He is driven, but his pursuit isn't personal.

His Stormers counterpart John Dobson last year spoke of his team's desire to bring a smile to the faces of their long-suffering fans in Cape Town, and Friend will be forgiven for harbouring similar ambitions for the impoverished souls of Galway. Connacht are very much the poor cousins when stacked against Ireland's bigger rugby regions.

As Bok plotters Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber discovered when they coached at Munster in 2016 and 2017, being part of the wider community comes with the territory in Ireland.

Fuelled by a heightened sense of duty Friend's mission manifested itself well before they shocked Ulster in front of their fans in Belfast last Friday.

They won six of their last seven matches in league play to force their way into the quarterfinals. By the time Glasgow Warriors snapped their six-match run in their last league clash, Connacht had done enough to secure seventh place on the points table.

Taking opportunity

They grabbed the opportunity to play in the quarterfinals with both hands, downing the much fancied Ulster 15-10 at an eerily silent Ravenhill.

Their experience at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday will be a foreign one, and not just because they are playing there for the first time. The Sportsground, the place they call home in Galway, has a 8,100 capacity, though a crowd of 9,021 pitched up for a match against Toulouse in 2011. Running out at a stadium this weekend that will again break the URC attendance record should be far removed from their comfort zone.

Last week they were undaunted in Belfast. They played with pluck and purpose and though Connacht does not boast many household names, as a collective they routinely deliver more than the sum of their parts.

Centre Bundee Aki, wing Mack Hansen, prop Finlay Bealham, flank Cian Prendergast and hooker Dave Heffernan are their biggest names. That may not have the look of show stoppers, but Connacht have successfully upstaged bigger acts.

Their all-for-one mentality has carried them far.

In DNA

But then Connacht, as now hard wired in their DNA, are used to digging deep.

Like the Stormers who were brought back from the precipice of complete financial ruin, Connacht in their recent history faced disbandment in 2009 and extinction in 2003. Their loyal fans did not stand by idly. They marched on the Irish Rugby Football Union headquarters in Dublin to plead their case.

Connacht have weathered storms. The one they face on Saturday doesn't hold the same peril, but it will still require all their deep rooted fortitude.

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