Eoin McKeon warns Connacht must park Glasgow woe

Connacht back row Eoin McKeon expects a frantic challenge from Ospreys when the side meet on Saturday at the Sportsground in a crunch Champions Cup qualifying game.

Last weekend Connacht lost heavily to conference rivals Glasgow Warriors, but on Saturday they host a side that they’re in a real fight with for the third place in Conference A.

Munster and Glasgow are running away with the division, but Connacht, Ospreys Cheetahs and Cardiff are in a points war for the final play-off slot.

A 22-17 loss in Bridgend last October saw Ospreys claim the honours when they last met, while a second defeat in Wales against Cardiff in January saw more vital points dropped. McKeon says it is vital that Connacht immediately shake off poor performances like those and against Glasgow.

“In sport, you have to be able to park those losses. Games come up fast and if you hold on to a bad loss it just carries on to the next game,” said 27-year-old McKeon.

“We’ve left Glasgow behind us now and our preparations have set us up nicely for the weekend.

“The Ospreys game was one disappointing performance and the Cardiff game at the end of the last block was one as well. I think when we looked back at the block as a whole we knew it was a really good block.

The Cardiff game at the end of it put a bit of a stain on it. We felt like we left it behind us there but on reflection we had a good block.

A win over Cheetahs gave Connacht a massive boost as they seek a return to the latter stages of the competition for the first time since their title-winning year of 2016.

And despite wanting to focus on their own progression, McKeon says it’s impossible not to track what their conference rivals are up to.

“We are keeping an eye on them, it’s hard not to notice who’s around you in the table. I don’t think it will affect how we approach the game though. Nothing changes.

“We have our gameplan, as long as we stick to it and do it well, execute it right, we’ll get the win. If we start worrying about the consequences of the game, that’s when we put ourselves under needless pressure and start making errors.

“Every time I play Ospreys, I always say it, ‘the 40 minutes is gone before you even know it’. It is just a fast-tempo game.

“We’d be expecting a lot of kicking from them too, but we’ll stay within our system. If we see the opportunities there, we’re going to take them. We’ll stay patient and not try and force anything.”