Friend rallies Connacht for ‘the month of champions’

Andy Friend is hoping his first pre-season as Connacht head coach has brought the clarity to his players he feels is the key to a successful PRO14 campaign.

Connacht have struggled since defying the odds under Pat Lam and winning the PRO12 final in 2016, with Lam’s replacement Kieran Keane lasting only a season at the helm last time around after finishing just sixth out of seven in Conference A.

The westerners replaced a New Zealander with an Australian in the off-season as Friend took the helm and after a successful pre-season which has seen victories over Brive, Wasps, and Lam’s Bristol Bears, former Harlequins, Brumbies, and Aussie men’s Sevens boss Friend is hoping his team can give the Connacht fans something to savour in the home league opener against Glasgow Warriors at the Sportsground on Saturday.

“I think everyone who comes into this competition comes in wanting to win it,” Friend said. “Only one team can win so 13 teams are going to be disappointed. For us it’s about our performance on a weekly basis, making sure we walk off that field feeling proud of the performance we put in.

If we can do that, I think we’ll win more games than we’ll lose. Where that leaves us on the table, that’sunknown at this point in time.

“The desire is to have real clarity around the game we want to play, and make sure we execute more than we don’t.

“The clarity of what we’re doing, that’s the case with any successful team. Players need to go out there having a clear understanding of what to do.

“I wasn’t here last year so I’m not prepared to say whether they did or they didn’t but in working with the group, I’ve been really impressed with the clarity of the coaches who’ve presented in their respective areas. We’ve got Nigel Carolan who looks after our attack and that’s been really clear. Jimmy Duffy is doing the forwards and the breakdown, that’s been very clear and Pete Wilkins with the defence and that’s been very clear.

My big message when I came in was ‘listen fellas, I’m not coming here to tell you how to do your job. You guys were appointed to those positions for a reason so convince me that the system you’ve got is good’.

“They all have, so this ain’t the Andy Friend system, this is the collective Connacht coaching staff system and players’ system and it’s working and I believe it’s why we’re getting the results we’re getting at the moment.”

Connacht have a chance to gather some serious momentum to their PRO14 campaign with four of their five opening rounds being played in Galway. The flip side is that three or those four visitors are the last three champions other than themselves — Glasgow, Scarlets on September 22, and the reigning champions Leinster a week later on September 29.

Friend wants his new charges to seize their opportunity and make the opening home advantage pay dividends.

“It’s really important. We’re calling it the month of champions because we’ve got the last four champions of the PRO12/14, us being one of them.

We’re all going to be there so it’s a tough start for us and you look around the (PRO14 launch last week) and there’s some very good footballers in that room and some very good coaches so every game’s going to be tough. What’s important for us, it’s going to be a new era again for Connacht.

“As teams, you go through new eras when new players and coaches turn up so for us, or for me, it’s important to make sure when we walk off that field at the Sportsground, the Clan Terrace and the supporters are happy with what they’ve seen.”

New club captain Jarrad Butler, set to return from a rib injury suffered against Wasps that forced the back-rower to miss the trip to Bristol, has been excited by Friend’s impact.

“This pre-season has been really good,” says Butler. “I think we’ve gone back to basics a little bit and just kind of tried to build on one-percenters and the ideology that lots of those little things make up to a big difference.”