Bradley Rallies Troops Ahead Of Must-Win Game
Connacht coach Michael Bradley is looking at Friday’s Magners League clash with Cardiff as being a prime opportunity to gain some ground on Ulster and still qualify for next season’s Heineken Cup.
With just two games to go in this season’s Magners League, the Connacht coach feels that his side can keep their European dream alive with two home matches still to come.
“Our approach to this game is that it’s an opportunity to still qualify for next season’s Heineken Cup,” Bradley said.
“We’ve been playing well enough and we’ll be trying to match the level of performance we’ve achieved in recent weeks. Hopefully we’ll be able to beat Cardiff and keep qualification alive until the final day of the season against the Ospreys.”
In Connacht’s previous outing they had a superb away win against the Dragons, which Bradley feels could well build momentum going into the final two weeks of the season.
“We played quite well in the first half and varied our play and it kept the Dragons at bay. They weren’t able to anticipate what we were doing and also it created opportunities for us and I thought we got the better of the first half.
“In the second half the Dragons readjusted and created a lot of chances themselves and had a lot of opportunities to win the game in the third quarter.
“But we survived with some excellent defensive work in particular from Conor McPhillips. Then having gotten one opportunity in the second half to score, we took it.
“To get the four points in an away game against a Welsh side was very pleasing and it keeps us in with an opportunity going into this week’s game against Cardiff.”
On Friday night at the Sportsground, Rugbytech will be selling Connacht merchanise at a 50% discount to anybody who is attending the game.
With so much at stake in the match against Cardiff, the Connacht Branch are anticipating a large crowd and supporters are encouraged to get to the ground early to take advantage of the end of the season sale.