Andy Friend happy to get off mark with home victory
Peter Sullivan of Connacht makes a break. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
The last time Connacht won their opening match of the season they went on to win the league title. So, no pressure then on Andy Friend who this week said they had set a target of 90% home wins to achieve a home quarter-final in the PRO14.
Given that nobody seems to know how many home matches there will be this season, or indeed how many teams will eventually participate in a competition which kicked off this weekend with four Irish wins, Friend’s men came close to using up their quota of defeats at the Sportsground on Saturday.
The cause of their turmoil was ill-discipline, silly penalties conceded in lineout and scrum along with open play in the first-half. Glasgow teams of recent vintage, those who inflicted six straight defeats on Connacht, would have punished them but they have lost their edge and are going through some transition under new coach Danny Wilson.
Ten penalties in the opening half yielded just one try for Glasgow and while they scored two after the break, the huge improvement in Connacht’s discipline and accuracy meant Friend’s men did enough to carve out a deserved victory and a first opening day win for him as he commences his third year in Galway.
“It’s nice to get that monkey off our back. We spoke about starting well, we talked about wanting to get that home quarter-final and in order to do that we will have to win 90% of our home games.
“So, really important that we started the season with a win. It’s an ambitious goal but it’s a goal we think can achieve.” He paid tribute to Bundee Aki, once again a bundle of energy, who crowned a fine display with two second-half tries as they turned around a 7-3 interval deficit.
“You could put Bundee in any environment, in front of anybody, and he genuinely believes he is going to win a contest. And that’s really powerful, something that other players feed on. I think that’s one of his greatest attributes. He’s very physical, very strong, and he loves those one-on-one contests.” Tom Farrell, who set up Aki for his opening try, was one of several Connacht players who Friend hopes is putting himself in line for international duty while another, lock Quinn Roux, finished off a fine move after 57 minutes having been binned in the opening half.
“It’s one of our targets, to get Connacht men in there in the green jersey of Ireland. I think there were some great performances out there … Dave Heffernan was very strong, Finlay Bealham was very strong, Quinn Roux, Kieran Marmion, Jack Carty and Tom Farrell … some really good performances. And Bundee, of course,” added Friend who was also thrilled with the way Munster loanee Alex Wootton set up Aki’s second try down the left.
J Porch; P Sullivan, T Farrell, B Aki (S Arnold 66), A Wootton; J Carty, K Marmion (C Blade 59); D Buckley (J Duggan 71), D Heffernan, F Bealham (A Aungier 54); G Thornbury (N Murray 77), Q Roux; J Butler, C Oliver (S Masterson 54), P Boyle.
H Jones; T Seymour, N Grigg, S McDowall (P Horne 61), R Nairn (R Tagive 54); A Hastings, A Price (G Horne 71); O Kebble (A Seiuli 60), F Brown, D Rae; R Harley, S Cummings (R Gray 71); R Wilson, C Fusaro (F Lokotui 61), M Fagerson.
Craig Evans (Wales).
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