Connacht under no illusions about Harlequins challenge

CONNACHT director of rugby Eric Elwood says his players are under no illusions about the size of the task ahead of them as they make their Heineken Cup debuts this weekend in London.

The western province take their bow on European club rugby’s highest stage against unbeaten English Premiership leaders Harlequins at the Stoop in Twickenham on Friday night before hosting four-time champions Toulouse in Galway for an historic home debut at the Sportsground eight days later. English powerhouse Gloucester make up the group to provide an unrelenting six-game challenge for Connacht in Pool 6. Yet the former Ireland fly-half is relishing the opportunity the province has to put its name on the map in the northern hemisphere’s premier club competition.

“There’s no fear,” Elwood said. “We’re looking to embrace this. A lot of us have been here a long time and for us this is the holy grail of European club rugby, so we’re certainly not fearing it. We’re looking forward to it, we want to embrace it and we want to play it tomorrow.

“It’s where we want to be and we’re looking to take full advantage of it.”

Connacht, who will this morning assess the fitness of several key players, including prop Rodney Ah You, back rows TJ Anderson and Michael Swift and backs Frank Murphy, Paul O’Donohoe, Henry Fa’afili and Eoin Griffin, following last weekend’s bruising 22-3 defeat at Ulster, are desperate to avoid the mental lapses that cost them dearly at Ravenhill and the previous week at home to Cardiff Blues in the RaboDirect Pro12.

“We’re under no illusions,” Elwood said. “You have a slip up at three minutes and 40 seconds in the Rabo and you’re going to get punished. You don’t want to have the same lack of intensity here at any time because you’re playing against quality internationals and they are going to punish you.

“We know the quality of the teams we’re playing against. We’re playing against Harlequins who are top of the Premiership, Toulouse, top of the French Championship and Gloucester who are fourth and have a proud tradition as well.

““For us to be competitive we have to be at our best for the 80 minutes, concentration levels, intensity levels, and that’s what’s required by any team playing in Europe.

“And this is our first time in the Heineken and they’re the challenges ahead of us. So those are the facts, we understand them, we understand it’s going to be difficult.

“But that’s a trait of a Connacht player as long as I’ve been here and these players are no different, they’ve always boxed above their weight.

“They don’t want for commitment. Unfortunately, we might make errors. But as regards our digging deep, I would never ever question a guy in a Connacht jersey. That’s never a doubt as far as I’m concerned.”