Connacht v Saracens Champions Cup Preview

Passionate fans

And so the Champions Cup 26-27 returns in yet another different format to the last, this time around with fixtures beginning in October. Not sure how to feel about this, it makes the whole competition very disjointed in my opinion and further disjoints the domestic league/s. Anyway, there seems to be a strong travelling contingent heading over to Galway to watch this one. I have never been to the Dexcom, so this will be another stadium ticked off the list (fun fact – it’s also used as a greyhound racing stadium).

For Sarries, we won a 12-try thriller at Leicester 40-38, then lost 21-17 at home to Sale which was a dire watch. We managed to bounce back by beating Bristol 30-7 with a bonus point on Saturday just gone. While it wasn’t perfect, it was a massive improvement from the Sale game. Eleven points from three games is a very reasonable start and a platform we can build on. In the champions cup last season, our run was ended in the Ro16 as we came up against Bath. A promising first half gave us belief, but Bath just outplayed us in the 2nd half and we lost 31-22. 

Connacht are in a far worse place. They lost their URC opener 29-15 at home to the Stormers (poor since Stormers had to travel 1/2way across the world…), won away at Benetton, then lost comprehensively by 36-19 at Glasgow Warriors. They’ve lost two of their first three after Stuart Lancaster’s side made the URC quarter-finals last season. The Glasgow game was close for a while, but Glasgow scored four maul tries, which is the biggest worry for Connacht here. They languish in 14^th in the URC and honestly probably do not deserve to be much higher.
Connacht return to the champions cup with a mixed bag of european form. They made it to the QF of last years Challenge Cup competition but got knocked out by Racing92. They will look to cause some upsets in europe this year.

Key Matchups

Maul/Scrum -Connacht have shown their maul defence is shoddy, and we are probably one of the best teams out there for getting mauls spot on. With Maro, JG2, Nick I and now George Martin, we can form a strong lineout and maul unit. If we can get into Connacht’s 22 and keep it tight, I’d expect Connacht to struggle to stop them and give away penalties in the process.
As for the scrum, we are missing numerous front rowers like Rhys Carre, Theo Dan, James Hadfield and Marcus Street. Worrying we have so many front row out unavailable or injured so early in the season. Connacht may look to punish a weaker than usual sarries scrum.

Attack - Mack Hansen is back from a long foot injury, and the former Leinster man Ciarán Frawley has been brought in to run the game at 10. Josh Ioane scored at Glasgow and looks an exciting prospect. Connacht have kept the ball well, but they haven’t turned enough of it into points. Hansen thrives when a defence gets stretched or disorganised, so Saracens will want to stay tight and avoid giving him room to run. We are all aware of just how destructive he can be in open space

Discipline - we had a yellow card against Bristol and a 20min red at Leicester both for high tackles. The 20 min red at Leicester could well have cost us the game had we not defended heroically. Connacht kick well enough to punish any penalties Saracens give away near their own 22 so we will have to be careful.

I have made some predicted lineups but not sure how accurate or otherwise they may be. Connacht's team likely similar to the one they put out against Glasgow (full strength) and ditto us (full strength). I imagine we shall see some bulk return in the shape of tizard and barbeary, and I'd be hugely surprised if the front row changed given the injury concerns we are experiencing right now. Oh well, here goes:

Predicted Connacht XV

15 Josh Ioane, 14 Mack Hansen, 13 Josh Devine, 12 Cathal Forde, 11 Fin Treacy, 10 Ciaran Frawley, 9 Ben Murphy; 1 Francois van Wyk, 2 Eoin de Buitlear, 3 Finlay Bealham, 4 Niall Murray, 5 Josh Murphy, 6 Cian Prendergast, 7 Shamus Hurley-Langton, 8 Paul Boyle ©

Predicted Saracens XV

15 Max Malins, 14 Noah Caluori, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Sione Va’enuku, 11 Jack Bracken, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Tomos Williams; 1 Phil Brantingham, 2 Jamie George, 3 Alec Clarey, 4 Olamide Sodeke, 5 Hugh Tizard, 6 Maro Itoje ©, 7 Ben Earl, 8 Alfie Barbeary.

I expect Connacht will come flying out the blocks and notch up some early points, however sarries could overpower them using the forwards game as the match goes on. We will see some of you in Ireland. Safe travels and as ever, come on Sarries.