Stuart Lancaster demands Connacht hit the ground running

The former England and Leinster coach has set twin targets of qualifying for the knockout stages of the URC as well as having a right crack at winning the European Challenge Cup for the first time

Connacht head coach Stuart Lancaster speaks to the team. Pic: Paul Currie/Inpho

Stuart Lancaster has warned that Connacht have to hit the ground running later this month and can’t wait until they play in front of a full house in Galway for the first time in almost two years next January when the €40m development work at Dexcom Stadium is finally finished.

The former England and Leinster coach has set twin targets of qualifying for the knockout stages of the URC — thereby also qualifying for the Champions Cup — as well as having a right crack at winning the European Challenge Cup for the first time.

Lancaster has been flat out getting Connacht ready for the new season over the past few months since his shock appointment in June. They have completed their pre-season games — scoring emphatic wins away to Bristol Bears and Sale Sharks — and are on a down week now before heading to a training camp in Westport next week.

Lancaster has obviously reviewed what happened in Connacht during a turbulent season last year which saw them finish 13th in the league, lose a home Challenge Cup quarter-final to 14-man Racing 92, his former club, while head coach Pete Wilkins went on sick leave in March before confirming his departure the following month and his appointment as assistant coach with Benetton Rugby.

“I wouldn't say dealt with but you'd obviously be naive not to take the lessons, take the learnings from what happened and ask the question about why,” said Lancaster.

“So when you come into a new organisation a lot of the things you do is asking good questions. What was it like last year? Why do you think this happened? Asking the players the question, there were a lot of close games. ‘Okay here's some stats, why do you think this happened and our defence was this and our attack was this? Why do you think playing in this area of the field, what do you think the strategy was here’? So yeah lots of questions for me to try and understand what happened last season.

“Because if you look at the metrics, there are a lot of metrics that Connacht came out on top … defenders beaten, line breaks etc … but also they came 13th. The big metric is 13th, but also not one inter-pro win and lost four home games (as well as one to Munster in Castlebar).

“And you're asking questions about the why's and the wherefores of that. Did the stand make a difference? Is it lack of crowd sometimes because of the stand? Is that a factor? Is it because we overplayed? I won't say it would be easier to make an impact but there are obviously a lot of things there. There are all very good foundations.

“I mean credit to the previous coaching team, the coaches that put it together. Even from the outside looking in I could see that there's a strong foundation here. But equally there's improvements that need to be made because we don't want to come 13th again.” 

Work on the former Sportsground meant that Connacht trained and played at what was essentially a building site throughout last year. 

The new North Stand will not be finished until the end of the year — the official opening is scheduled for the home URC clash with Leinster at the end of January — so Connacht again will not have any fans on that side of the ground for the first half of the season.

“I think if we can maximise the strength of the province and the support of the province, it enhances our opportunity to win. Because if we can fill the ground with passionate supporters behind the team, it definitely makes a 10% difference to a team's performance.

“I'm not making excuses for last year. But I do think potentially that stand-side, they missed that stand-side support. But we can't wait until January to turn up this time. We need to hit the ground running. And we've got two home games (against Benetton and Scarlets) at the start. So there's no excuses there. We've trained here enough now to know that we need to generate our own atmosphere.”