BY JOHN FALLON

On the face of it, this Friday night’s game against Scarlets (7.35pm) may seem like an ordinary game in the URC calendar, but this is actually a match which can define Connacht’s entire season.

The brutal opening round of five fixtures — three Irish derbies and ties in South Africa against the champions and runners-up — was always going to leave Connacht trying to catch up, albeit they would have hoped to have more than four points at this stage.

A win in this one will leave them with a pep in their step heading to face Ospreys next week in the final tie of this segment. Defeat? Well, it would put a serious dent in any real hopes of Champions Cup rugby next season or a quarter-final spot in the league this season with just one-third of the campaign completed.

Scarlets, who picked up their first win of the season at the weekend against Zebre, have also made a poor start to the season, but they have drawn one game and are five points clear of Andy Friend’s men having also picked up bonus points.

“Scarlets, they are not an easy team either, they have a lot of internationals there and new signings,” said Friend. “Similar to us, they haven’t been firing on all cylinders at the front end of the season. There are a few of us sitting down at the bottom end of the table and we are all searching for the game to come together and no doubt they will be targeting Friday night as are we.”

Friend said there had been a serious debrief of the Leinster loss on Monday morning and the players themselves had held a few ‘healthy meetings’ in a bid to turn their season.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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