By John Fallon

Connacht expect their international players to take the lead as the province prepares for their biggest home crowd ever when over 25,000 fans pack into Mayo GAA’s headquarters at MacHale Park in Castlebar tomorrow for the URC clash with Munster (2.30pm).

Scrum and attack coach Colm Tucker, who is leading the management team this week with head coach Pete Wilkins remaining on sick leave, said it is the sort of week when leaders need to step up.

Connacht have the likes of Mack Hansen, Bundee Aki, Finlay Bealham and skipper Cian Prendergast available for the derby, and Tucker said the Irish players are already having an impact.

“You have to lean on the experience, and the international quality you have in your group. They’ve already started playing a huge role in the week and I’m sure they’ll play a massive role on Saturday for us.

“It’s a massively exciting week. Obviously Munster, first of all, is a huge challenge, they’re welcoming back their internationals as well I’m sure so they’ll be much improved from their trip to Glasgow, even though they had some pockets of great rugby.

“And then for us it’s going to MacHale Park, 26,000 people, sold out very quickly within an hour and a massive spread of ticket sales across all five counties. It’s a massively exciting day for the club.”

He said the scramble for points for the knockout stages of the league adds another layer of importance to this occasion for Connacht’s first competitive game in Mayo in their 140-year history.

“Yeah, you’re into the business end and the race for the top eight is increasing every week, every team seems to be beating each other and all the games at the weekend, there was only a score between them.

“So there’s been fantastic rugby played, I’m sure most teams will be looking at shoring up defensively, which would be a massive focus on a lot of teams this week, but all of the teams are capable of beating each other on any given day so it’s making for a very exciting URC.”

He said that they have not brought in any additional coaches in the absence of Wilkins and that the other assistants — John Muldoon (lineout and maul), Scott Fardy (defence) and Mark Sexton (attack) — are looking after the preparation with him.

“We’ve kept to what we have ourselves. Myself, Scott Fardy, John Mul and Mark Sexton, the four of us are just leading the group for this week. A little bit of a dissemination of duties around us a little bit more, but the four of us are very clear in how we want to play and how we want to approach the game.”

Pictured: Finn Treacy slides in to score a try for Connacht against Benetton earlier this month. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.