With no time to "lament" Saturday's last-minute defeat in Galway, it does not get any easier for Kieran Keane's Connacht as they head to the home of the Guinness PRO 14 champions – Scarlets.
The Connacht coach, while obviously unhappy with the 17-15 loss to Cardiff at the Sportsground, says it is time to move on now that the review is complete.
“We’ve had a really neat review, sat down as a group and reassessed a few things, aired a lot of small issues that probably held us back a little bit, and got on with the job.
“We haven’t been able to lament anything, we are not feeling sorry for ourselves, we are just moving on,” he says.
Having taken a 15-10 lead against the wind, Connacht conceded a try with just two minutes remaining to suffer their third defeat in four fixtures this season.
“A number of issues have been addressed, and the boys have taken everything well around that. We did lose the game in the last two minutes, but if we had done other things better, we would not have been in that position. We didn’t use the ball well, and we didn’t use the conditions well, but were are learning,” said Keane.”
Connacht's coach now heads to Wales where he faces another Kiwi coach, Wayne Pivac, who led the Scarlets to championship victory over Munster last season, 12 years after they winning the inaugural title. They are also in scoring form this season, having racked up big wins over Southern Kings, Zebre and Edinburgh last weekend, with only Ulster's 27-20 victory halting their clean sweep.
Keane knows what is ahead for Connacht in Parc y Scarlets on Saturday.
“They are very expansive, very well skilled and a well drilled team. We are going over to beat them obviously. We have put in place a plan that we think could trouble them, but they are a quality side, and obviously champions – you don’t become champions for nothing.
Focal point
“Decision-making has really been a focal point for us. We have hard workers, we have good players, and we have structures they are coming to grips with that will create opportunities, which we haven’t been able to exploit yet. So putting a little bit of polish on the rough diamond is what we are looking to achieve.
“Wins are great, but you generally get what you deserve in this professional sporting world, and we are getting there. We will make a statement sooner or later.”
Some good news is the likely return of Tiernan O’Halloran at fullback after suffering a hip injury against the Dragons.
“He [Tiernan] is coming back in. He’s been out with niggles and other things around his injury status, so it is nice to have that experience obviously.”
It is a week or so too early for fellow Pro12 winners Matt Healy, who returns to training next week, and Niyi Adeolokun "in the coming weeks", while in the pack James Cannon has a minor thigh strain, and Naulia Dawai is "progressing well" with hamstring rehab and getting closer to a return to the training paddock. Lock Andrew Browne [Achilles] "a tough sort of rooster" will be back in time.
The injuries have obviously affected Keane’s ability to include key players this season.
“I’m not going down the avenue of selecting a first XV because it is a long arduous season. It is more about minutes, monitoring people daily, weekly, and monitoring form, GPS, training, mistakes that are possibly creeping in, energy levels, etc, so definitely not in the position where we have a top 15.”
