Biarritz ring changes for Connacht clash

Connacht can expect a Biarritz backlash this evening in the Basque country judging by the fallout from the westerners’ 22-14 win in Galway a week ago.

Club President Serge Blanco, already unimpressed by their recent form, took an even dimmer view of last week’s events. Consequently, the pressure on the leading players to atone is intense.

Coaches Serge Mihas and Jack Isaacs were sidelined and the team has supposedly been placed in the hands of long-serving manager and former Biarritz legend Laurent Rodriguez, along with Mathieu Rourre. But no one doubts Blanco’s influence.

Connacht make just one enforced change. Johnny O’Connor comes in for Willie Faloon, ruled out due to a fractured eye socket; Biarritz make five.

The two midfielders at fault for the turnover try by Fetu’u Vainikolo, Charles Gimenez and Marcello Bosch, along with the ineffective outhalf Mat Berquist, lock Thibault Dubarry and flanker Benoit Guyot have all been dropped. Their replacements are Jean Pascal Barraque, Damien Traille, Julien Peyrelongue, Pelu Taele and Imanol Harinordoquy.

Biarritz look stronger, more experienced. And if Harinordoquy’s posturing and off-the-ball shenanigans after he was introduced early in the second-half are any indication, (how Jean-Philippe Genevois escaped at least a citing for what looked like a headbutt is a mystery) then Connacht are likely to face fired-up opponents.

Mihas and Isaacs were not helped by Dimitri Yachvili, their goal-kicker and orchestrator in chief, when the scrum-half was asked afterwards why he and Biarritz had used their first-half wind advantage by kicking more.

“We just played as the coaches asked us. We respected the game plan,” said Yachvili.

At a crossroads

“We are at a crossroads,” said Blanco. “This team needs a boost . . . There is still a chance for us to qualify as one of the best runners-up and if not that then we can at least participate in the Amlin Challenge Cup.”

Biarritz rescued last season by winning the Challenge Cup after eventually pulling clear from the relegation zone. But aside from struggling to keep pace financially with Toulouse, Clermont and Toulon, Biarritz have relied on the same aforementioned core of campaigners for years and have long begun to look more than a little stale.

But tonight’s selection is a statement of intent and conditions could well suit their often slow, conservative and ponderous game. Blanco’s dark mood is reflected by that of the Biarritz fans, less than 10,000 of whom are liable to show up on what is forecast to be a wet and cold night in the French southwest.

Connacht can expect plenty of territorial kicking from Yachvili, Traille, Iain Balshaw and company, with Biarritz also resorting more to their mauling game and it’s hard to believe that the French outfit will be so error-prone again.

Aggressive

Another of last week’s most striking features was how well Connacht’s scrum performed, and particularly Ronan Loughney against Fabien Barcella. They will need to repeat that, along with their physicality, aggressive defence, choke tackling and Dan Park’s customary accuracy. Another win would give them every chance of an interest in Europe beyond the Six Nations.

Connacht are also a more unified and better coached team than their hosts. And they have a far superior conveyor belt of talent in the likes of Eoin McKeon, Kieran Marmion and outstanding young fullback Robbie Henshaw. As a reward for his stunning rookie season after finishing school in June, like Marmion, Henshaw has been rewarded with a two-year contract.

As that excellent documentary, The West’s Awake, underlined, Connacht have raised themselves consistently in their Heineken Cup.

Not even Toulouse garnered a bonus point against them in two meetings last season and this Biarritz are no Toulouse. But they are, apparently, in a vengeful mood.