By JOHN FALLON

CONNACHT head coach Stuart Lancaster said that most Connacht players only found out when they woke on Saturday morning that their lunchtime URC clash with Scarlets had been called off the night before.

He said it was hugely frustrating to have their clash called off late on Friday night when it emerged that Scarlets were unable to fly across to Dublin because of Storm Amy. The Llanelli side’s flight was diverted to Manchester where it was kept on the ground for hours before a decision was taken to postpone the match.

“Yeah, very frustrated,” said Lancaster. “Probably less than the players who were mentally, physically, and emotionally committed to the game. And because the call was so late on the Friday night, a lot of them were asleep when the call was made, and the message was put out that the game was off.

“They only realised when they woke up in the morning, they were bringing in their pre-match routine. So, yeah, frustrating. Obviously, the weather was pretty bad on the Friday.”

All professional rugby teams map out their roster weeks and months in advance, even proposed team selections are planned for several games at a time, so a late postponement throws all of that into disarray.,

“Dealing with the immediacy of the decision, what do we do on the Saturday? Do we train? Do we do something in the gym? There was selection decisions surrounding this game, the upcoming Bulls game and Munster game,” added Lancaster.

“I’d mapped out the loose selections and that changed the dynamic. And what does this weekend look like? You play one game, not playing for a weekend and are we going to be physically and mentally prepared. You get battle-hardened by playing.”

The late postponement robbed Connacht of the chance to build momentum from their impressive opening round win over Benetton at Dexcom Stadium and now they head to Cardiff on Saturday to take on a side who were full value for two bonus points in Thomond Park at the weekend.

Mack Hansen is back in training and while it’s unlikely he will feature this week with fellow Lions Bundee Aki and Finlay Bealham, Lancaster said they are ready to fly.

“Everyone’s champing at the bit, like Bundee’s flying, Finlay Beatham’ is flying. They’ve trained for a fair chunk of time now, and Mack’s been in that category as well,” added Lancaster.

Hansen sustained a foot injury in Australia with the Lions while there is further good news for Connacht with outhalf Josh Ioane and centre Byron Ralston, both injured in the win over Benetton, have returned to training with a decision on their availability for Saturday’s game to be made later in the week.

However two players, locks Niall Murray and Oisin Dowling, have undergone surgery. Murray has an ankle injury sustained in the Benetton match and will be out for several weeks, while Dowling will be out until December. Tighthead Temi Lasisi continues his rehab after knee surgery a few weeks ago.

Cardiff showed on Saturday, when they came from behind to salvage two bonus points against Munster in Thomond Park, that for all the difficulties in Welsh rugby at the moment, they are a decent outfit.

The defeated the Lions 33-20 at the Arms Park in their opening match and 19-year old winger Tom Bowen, son of the former Scarlets out-half Gareth, ran in a hat-trick against Munster in a 23-20 loss on a night when Callum Sheedy was class at No.10. They will be formidable opponents for Connacht and the loss of fine-tuning against Scarlets last weekend could prove costly for Lancaster’s men before they head into difficult clashes against the Bulls and Munster.

“The first 20 minutes will be a good marker to see where we are,” said Lancaster. “Cardiff will be pretty confident given how they played against Munster and how they started the season and they are at home as well.”

Pictured: Connacht Head Coach Stuart Lancaster who was left frustrated by the late postponement of last weekend’s URC home tie against Scarletts.