RUGBY:JOHN MULDOON makes a timely reappearance for Connacht in his first match back since breaking his arm in Ireland's game against the All Blacks in the summer.
The team captain is joined by international flanker Johnny O’Connor, who is also fit again following a back injury, as Connacht seek to carry their decent Magners League form into the Challenge Cup.
St Mary’s prop Rob Sweeney makes his starting debut, as does scrumhalf Cillian Willis and wing Darragh Fanning. All three have featured in Connacht’s opening run of league matches as impact replacements and arrive in the hope of replicating last year’s unbeaten pool run, this time against Italian side Cavalieri.
Who, you may well ask, are Cavalieri?
The Tuscany side came fifth in last season’s Italian league, the Campionato Eccellenza Super 10, and came into the Challenge Cup as a tier 4 team, that is one of the top four Italian sides that are not part of the Magners League for the 2010-’11 season.
They were formed in 2000, when a number of Italian clubs amalgamated and are not ranked inside the top 40 clubs by the ERC.
In short, Connacht should be looking towards racking up some points and, hopefully, will come away from Italy with a win and a bonus point before getting stuck into the more meatier teams in the pool – Bayonne and Harlequins.
In that light, Muldoon’s arrival will help Eric Elwood’s cause, which is clearly to become one of the top three Irish teams in the Magners league and qualify for the Heineken Cup.
A win would also help block bad memories of last Thursday in Wales, where they went down to Cardiff 22-6, a defeat that leaves them seventh on the table, one place above Leinster.
Mostly Italian players, the Cavalieri side has a smattering of overseas contributors, such as South Africa’s Wouter Moore in the secondrow and Elwood has admitted knowing little about them.
Connacht sent a video man over a few weeks ago when they played Lazio in the championship, so he will have some notion of their style. A solid goal kicker and some big-ball carriers was the consensus.
Connacht is the only team that has played in all 14 editions of the competition and has made the knockout stages seven times.
This year the cut is again severe with only the pool winners advancing to the quarter-finals.
This should be a good place to assert their claim as one of those eight.
CAVALIERI: R Wakarua; N Tempestini, D Majstorovic, W Mafi, F Vezzosi; A Chiesa, P Patelli; L Poloni, L Giovanchelli, G Bocca, L Beccaris, W Moore, L Petillo, F Christano, N Soqueta, N Soqueta, F Cristiano, L Petillo, W Moore, L Beccaris, G Bocca, L Giovanchelli, L Poloni. Replacements: A Neri, D Stefani, G Marino, N Belardo, A Lunardi, S Rodwell, E Lewis Pratt, F Giusti.
CONNACHT: T Nathan; D Fanning, N Ta’auso, M Nikora, F Carr; I Keatly, C Willis; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Sweeney, M Swift, B Upton, A Browne, J O’Connor, J Muldoon (c). Replacements: D Murphy, B Fa’amausili, R Loughney, M McComish, M McCarthy, F Murphy, A Wynne, S Monaghan.
Other Pool One Fixture
Tomorrow – Bayonne v Harlequins, Stade Jean Dauger, Bayonne, 5.45pm (Irish-time).
Remaining Connacht Fixtures
Fri, Oct 15th – Connacht v Bayonne.
Sun, Dec 12th – Harlequins v Connacht.
Fri, Dec 17th – Connacht v Harlequins.
Jan 13th-16th – Bayonne v Connacht.
Jan 20th-23rd – Connacht v Cavalieri Estra.
Betting: Cavalieri 9/1; Connacht 1/25; Draw 28/1.
Referee: M Raynal (France).
Verdict: Connacht.
