Bradley keen to bounce back against Blues
Following their 62-13 hammering by Edinburgh at Murrayfield, coach Michael Bradley is desperate to “put last week’s result behind us”.
“It is a big game for us,” says Bradley. ” It’s easy to support a winning side – we are not that at the moment – so we are looking for support for the match against Cardiff.”
Bradley has made two changes from the Scottish disaster with first choice prop Brett Wilkinson returning from injury and replacing Ronan Loughney; Jamie Hagan continues in the front row after Robbie Morris failed a fitness test yesterday.
However Bradley has also opted to hand New Zealander Miah Nikora his competitive debut at out half The Gisborne-born 25-years-old came on as a replacement for Ian Keatley last week.
Bradley added: “What we want is consistency. Cardiff are coming here, having lost by a point to Munster last week. That means they have lost their first two matches, so if they are going to qualify fo rth etop four, they will come very strong to the Sportsground. Last year we went well against them, had a great opportunity to win, but didn’t.”
Cardiff’s director of coaching David Young has named Lions’ star Jamie Roberts in a starting XV that boasts 13 internationals. Young says Cardiff are travelling to “get the win under our belt” before they face Llanelli at home.
“We start with Connacht, who are a difficult team for any side to face at the Sportsground, but I feel we have enough quality to win. However, we have to make sure we match that quality with the desire, hunger, and accuracy to get the right result.”
CONNACHT: G Duffy; B Tuohy, T Nathan, K Matthews, F Carr; M Nikora, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, J Hagan; A Browne, B Upton; J Muldoon (cpt), R Ofisa, M McComish.
Replacements: R Loughney, A Flavin, M McCarthy, J O’Connor, C O’Loughlin, I Keatley, AWynne.
CARDIFF: B Blair; L Halfpenny, G Thomas, J Roberts, C Czekaj; C Sweeney, R Rees; J Yapp, G Williams, T Filise; B Davies, P Tito (capt); M Molitika, S Warburton, X Rush.
Replacements: G Powell, T R Thomas, D Jones, A Powell, G Cooper, S Norton-Knight, G Evans.
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