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All eyes on Ciarán Frawley as Stuart Lancaster’s men aim to bounce back from Stormers disappointment
United Rugby Championship: Benetton Rugby v Connacht Rugby, Friday, Stadio Monigo, 7.45pm The stakes have risen for both Benetton and Connacht ahead of their URC round-two clash in Treviso.
Both sides are well stacked, neither won on the opening weekend and each has designs on the top eight. Suffice to say, they will be targeting this encounter as an opportunity to truly launch their season. After a storming second half to last season propelled them into the top eight, Connacht have made little secret of their ambitions in this campaign and their sense of urgency is reflected in the side Stuart Lancaster has unveiled.
Never before have Connacht welcomed back six Irish internationals from a summer tour together. Of their seven-strong contingent who were on duty in Australia and New Zealand, Bundee Aki is the only one not making his seasonal re-appearance at Stadio Monigo.
Up front, lock Darragh Murray, captain Cian Prendergast and Sean Jansen – a talismanic number eight and their leading try scorer last term who took his career to a new level in July – all return, as do Billy Bohan and Sam Illo on the bench. But no player will generate as much attention as Ciarán Frawley, who will make his debut for Connacht at outhalf after his summer switch from Leinster.
There are two further changes from the side that started last week’s opening defeat against the Stormers , with hooker Matthew Victory handed his first Connacht start, while Caolin Blade is named at scrumhalf in the absence of the injured Ben Murphy, with the fit-again Colm Reilly on the bench. The weather was glorious for the squad, as well as those supporters who have made the trek, when they arrived in the Veneto region on Thursday, having travelled to Dublin on Wednesday evening, with the temperatures set to still be around 18 degrees when the game kicks off under the Monigo floodlights.
The last six meetings between the teams have been won by the home team each time, while Connacht have not won at Stadio Monigo since 2022.
“They are under a new management team,” said Lancaster on arrival in Venice airport in reference to the remodelled Wayne Pivac ticket. “I thought they played well last week against Dragons and obviously the end of last season, their real standout game was that game when they beat Leinster. So they are a hard team to beat.
” Lancaster accepted that Connacht will have to protect the ball “much better than last week”, adding: “We can’t give them repeat sets, or something to build pressure, and we have to be strong in our set-piece and maul. ” Akin to Connacht, Benetton have also been strengthened by the return of Italian internationals Niccolò Cannone, captain Michele Lamaro and Riccardo Favretto up front, as well as their primary gamebreaker Louis Lynagh, talented centre Leonardo Marin and scrum-half Alessandro Garbisi.
At face value, their draw at home to Dragons was a disappointing result, even if they would have lost but for the Welsh side coming within the width of an upright of clinching the game with the final kick. But Benetton will be disappointed to have lost a game which they seemed to have under control when their pack gained ascendancy through their scrum and maul in the first period.
“We took some positives from the Dragons game, but we also know there are areas where we need to be better,” admitted Pivac. “We’ve looked closely at our performance during the week and the focus has been on improving our accuracy and being more consistent for the full 80 minutes. “Connacht are a very competitive side and we know they will bring a lot of intensity.
Playing again at Monigo is important for us and we want to take another step forward, deliver a strong performance and give our supporters something to get behind. ” Benetton: Matt Gallagher, Louis Lynagh, Paolo Odogwu, Leonardo Marin, Onisi Ratave, Jacob Umaga, Alessandro Garbisi, Matias Medrano, Bautista Bernasconi, Simone Ferrari, Niccolò Cannone, Federico Ruzza, Giulio Marini, Michele Lamaro , Riccardo Favretto.
Replacements: Siua Maile, Mirco Spagnolo, Tiziano Pasquali, Sootala Fa’aso’o, Antony Miranda, Andy Uren, Jean Smith, Ignacio Mendy Connacht Rugby: Sam Gilbert, Finn Treacy, John Devine, Cathal Forde, Mack Hansen, Ciarán Frawley, Caolin Blade, Francois van Wyk, Matthew Victory, Finlay Bealham, Darragh Murray, Josh Murphy, Cian Prendergast , Sean O’Brien, Sean Jansen. Replacements: Eoin de Buitléar, Billy Bohan, Sam Illo, Niall Murray, Paul Boyle, Colm Reilly, Josh Ioane, Shane Jennings. Referee: Hollie Davidson .
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