Sammy Arnold: Connacht will get stuck into Leinster with nothing-to-lose attitude

Connacht's Sammy Arnold in action against Ulster. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie

Connacht centre Sammy Arnold says they have to view their trip to face Leinster next Saturday as an opportunity to be the first side to defeat the champions this year rather than dwell on them going into the clash on the back of three defeats.

The 24-year-old said they were disappointed to go down to one of his former sides, Ulster, on Sunday night, with the 32-19 loss at the Sportsground coming on the back of Heineken Champions Cup losses to Racing 92 and Bristol Bears.

Now they must regroup to travel to take on the form team in Europe with Leinster enjoying bonus-point wins in all seven PRO14 games and in both victories in Europe against Montpellier and Northampton Saints.

“We can look at it like that or we can look at it as a massive opportunity,” said Arnold. “We are going up there with nobody giving us a hope so we have nothing to lose. We will go up there and get stuck into them and see what happens.

“There is a belief within the group and it’s a challenge we are really looking forward to. Dust ourselves off, this week is done, didn’t finish the way we wanted it to. It’s a massive challenge heading up there but bring it on.

“It’s very disappointing to lose at home. We will have to have a look at the match and see where we can get better. We lost a few big moments in the game that got away from us. I didn’t think we were that far away but we were chasing it. We lost a few individual battles, slipped off a few tackles and then before we knew it we were five points down under our sticks, or seven points or three points down and the game just crept away from us.” 

Arnold will get to play another of his former teams when Munster come to the Sportsground on Saturday week but he’s not looking that far ahead at this point.

“I’ll take it one game at a time. Leinster are a very good team so I wouldn’t want to get ahead of myself. I need to get picked first and we will see how things go early in the week and go from there.”