By John Fallon

Connacht senior coach Rod Seib is hoping it’s a case of third time lucky when they head back to Wales for the third time this season for a league clash with the Dragons at Rodney Parade tomorrow (7.45pm).

Connacht lost their first URC match of the season when they went down 14-8 to Cardiff in October; and then suffered a 24-21 loss to Ospreys in Bridgend in their opening Challenge Cup game when they blew a 21-0 lead.

Now they hope to try to climb into the top half of the table when they take on a Dragons side who haven’t won a league match all season, but are still not bottom as two draws sees them above fellow strugglers the Scarlets.

Welsh rugby is in the doldrums, but the four franchise sides are battling amid great uncertainty and fears that at least one of them is going to be disbanded.

Seib said he’s aware of the situation in Wales, but as their two previous visits to Wales have shown this season, they can take nothing for granted against teams battling for their lives.

“Yeah, I’m certainly aware of it. But the reality is we know we’re coming up against a highly-motivated opposition each week,” said the Australian.

“So, we wouldn’t expect anything less. There’s obviously the complexity of the situation in Wales at the moment. But we have shown that our trips to Wales have been tough battles so far this year. So, we wouldn’t expect anything less this weekend.”

Connacht are boosted by the return of Irish international Cian Prendergast from a hamstring injury, while one-cap All Black out-half Josh Ioane has also recovered from a groin injury and is available for the trip to Newport.

Lion tighthead Finlay Bealham is still following the return to play protocols for a head injury, but he has not yet been ruled out, and a decision will be taken today on his availability.

Prop Jack Aungier (elbow), full-back Sean Naughton (ankle), winger Shane Jennings (quad), and lock Oisin McCormack (hamstring) will be unavailable until mid to late January; while late withdrawal from the weekend’s 52-0 win over Black Lion, Sean Jansen, will continue to be monitored for an illness before a decision is made on his availability.

Seib said that keeping a team scoreless – Connacht hadn’t done it since February 2020 – was a huge boost as they put the Georgians to the sword in the Challenge Cup Pool 1 game last weekend, and they will hope to push on now in Newport tomorrow as they turn their attention back to the United Rugby Championship.

“It’s really pleasing when you keep a team nil, that’s one thing that I was incredibly impressed with. We really stuck to the game plan, stayed focused, didn’t get sick of doing what was working, and as you know, when you’ve got a fair lead in a game, you can sometimes go away from your game plan.

“And at half-time, very much the message to decision-makers was to make sure we stuck to our game plan. If you’ve been hypercritical, you could say there’s potentially some points that we could have chased.

“Maybe we could have been a little bit more aggressive in that second half, but the reality is we kept it to zero on the basis of us staying to our game plan.

“So I was really pleased that we stayed focused and diligent with what we needed to do well. It was important to get the win,” added Seib.

Pictured: Connacht’s Caolin Blade scores a try in last week’s win over Black Lion. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.