McSharry wants Connacht to go it alone in Europe

Connacht centre Dave McSharry says that having taken several big scalps in the Heineken Cup in the past three years, it is now time they qualified for the competition off their own bat.

Connacht’s eventual appearance in the Heineken Cup three seasons ago came on the back of Leinster winning the tournament and since then it has been continued success by Joe Schmidt’s men who have kept them in it. But with a new-look competition about to be unveiled and Connacht on their best run of results in a dozen years, McSharry believes they can make it.

They head to Llanelli on Sunday hoping to equal their best ever run of five consecutive victories and McSharry reckons they can finish in the top six of the RaboDirect Pro12 and stay among Europe’s elite, especially having beaten Toulouse, Biarritz and Harlequins in the competition in the past few years.