RUGBY:ERIC ELWOOD was obliged to cancel Connacht's customary Monday on-field training session in Galway yesterday as a litany of injuries sustained in the galling 35-33 defeat to the Scarlets in Llanelli on Saturday compounded their lengthy list of longer-term casualties – 16 of the squad were unable to take part yesterday.
In addition to the likes of John Muldoon (shoulder, out until mid to late October), Johnny O’Connor (back, out for another three to four weeks) and fellow backrower Ezra Taylor (medial ligament, five to six weeks), as well as winger Eoin Griffen (broken metatarsal), scrumhalf Conor McLaughlin, who had yet to play this season due to a shoulder injury, sustained a knee injury in training.
But it was the latest medical bulletin arising out of the trip to Wales which has compounded Connacht’s injury woes and left Elwood waiting on a variety of scans before determining his selection to face Glasgow in Firhill on Friday. Another backrower, Ray Ofisa, picked up a neck injury, while Troy Nathan (shoulder), prop Jamie Hagan (hamstring), outhalf Miah Nikora (dead leg), Bernie Upton (head) and centre Niva Ta’auso (swollen hand) were others to return with injuries, as did back-up prop Robert Sweeney, whose back spasm wasn’t helped by the coach being caught in traffic from Bristol to Llanelli.
Academy backrower, Shane Conneelly, was on the bench in Parc Y Scarlets, and of some consolation is the possible return of backrower Andrew Browne. Given how tight their resources are in the frontrow and now in the backrow, Hagan and Ofisa are primary concerns for Elwood, who says their options up front are down to the bare bones. Though not inclined to target the following week’s all-ticket game at home to Ulster, necessity being the mother of invention he has no option.
“We don’t have the options to rotate,” he explained, “especially in the forwards. We don’t have anybody standing.”
If Connacht had held on to their 33-30 lead deep into injury-time on Saturday it would have had kept them on top of the league table, but perhaps more important psychologically, it would also have removed the monkey from their backs of not having won away in the league for two seasons.
“That’s what we were saying, we could have put a lot of things to bed with that one game,” said Elwood. “. . . But there were positives. We scored three nice tries, we did a lot of good things and got something out of the game. Unfortunately we had two people in the bin which cost us 14 points, though we clawed it back to take the lead. So there was good fighting spirit but we did too much defending.”
Elwood had no qualms with the costly yellow cards incurred by Frank Murphy and Ronan Loughney. “I looked at them again, spoke to the two individuals concerned and spoke to the lads collectively and said: ‘lads, we’ve got to stop this. Both cards were warranted and it’s just killing us, you just can’t do it’. It cost us 14 points, which was the game.”
