{"id":13085,"date":"2022-12-06T17:05:18","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T17:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/?p=13085"},"modified":"2022-12-06T17:05:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T17:05:18","slug":"now-weve-the-yardstick-of-what-makes-a-champion-side-says-friend-after-loss-to-leinster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/?p=13085","title":{"rendered":"‘Now we’ve the yardstick of what makes a champion side,’ says Friend after loss to Leinster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean Farrell reports from the Sportsground<\/em><\/p>\n

CONNACHT HEAD COACH Andy Friend believes his team will be better for the experience of losing to a suffocating Leinster performance.<\/p>\n

In form after beating the Scarlets last time out, Connacht came into the Galway clash with confidence high, but the mood was sombre after they finished the 3-20 defeat with 13 men.<\/p>\n

For long stretches of the opening half, Connacht were the more threatening side, cranking up pressure through long sets of phase-play borne out of excellent skills and intent.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

However, they found precious few of the line-breaks they sought. Though stretched time and again, Leinster\u2019s line was rarely breached.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were moments of that game where we certainly matched Leinster. But that\u2019s why they\u2019re a champion side, they can hold on and keep that consistency for 80 minutes and there\u2019s no let-up. That\u2019s what champion sides do<\/p>\n

Though soundly beaten by 17 points, a performance of this calibre would likely go a long way towards victory against opposition that is not a fully-loaded and vengeful Leinster side.<\/p>\n

After hammering at the door through the opening quarter, Connacht trailed at the interval and once Garry Ringrose broke free to score inside a minute of the second half, Leinster made sure it was a long road back.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf-time 6-3 is probably a fair reflection,\u201d says Friend, \u201cit was a bit of an arm-wrestle. The try after half-time really hurt us.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou couldn\u2019t find fault with them. They\u2019re a quality outfit. That\u2019s why they\u2019re European champions. Full credit to them, they earned the victory today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to make sure we take learnings out of that game and make sure we\u2019re better next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Away to Ulster next week, Connacht will likely be without Dominic Robertson-McCoy (who will be hearing from the disciplinary committee), Matt Healy pulled out of the starting line-up for this clash and is a doubt for Belfast too, though Friend hopes to see Jarrad Butler pull through.<\/p>\n

Click Here: Casemiro jersey sale<\/a><\/p>\n

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean Farrell reports from the Sportsground CONNACHT HEAD COACH Andy Friend believes his team will be better for the experience of losing to a suffocating Leinster performance. In form after beating the Scarlets last time out, Connacht came into the Galway clash with confidence high, but the mood was sombre after they finished the 3-20 … <\/p>\n

Read more “‘Now we’ve the yardstick of what makes a champion side,’ says Friend after loss to Leinster”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}