Connacht’s Finlay Bealham epitomises team singing from same hymn sheet

It’s becoming mantra-like now and not only do all of Connacht’s players play as one but speak as one too. This is a squad that are playing and talking, as well as singing, off the same hymn sheet.

Such is the clarity in what they are doing that even in times of relative crisis, their confidence in executing a wide, running game – based on their skills set and trust in each other – meant that they responded to Munster’s double whammy and 14-6 lead by simply resorting to what they do best.

By dint of their ball retention, so their array of game-breakers – a week ago it was Matt Healy, this time it was led by Bundee Aki – could start locating holes in an increasingly porous Munster defence. And few better encapsulate what Connacht have become than their rapidly improving props Denis Buckley and Finlay Bealham.

Prior to this season, the 24-year-old Aussie-born tighthead who moved from Ulster to Connacht when offered a place in their burgeoning academy in 2011, had only started two of his previous 25 matches for his adopted province. This season he has been ever-present for Connacht, with last Saturday marking his 10th start in 27 appearances. He also made his Ireland debut off the bench against Italy.

“Yeah, I have been playing pretty much every game now. I have good players around me so we all try to help each other improve and I am just really enjoying my role at the minute.

“Everyone backs each other to do their job so there is no point in me worrying about someone else’s job. I just have to worry about what my job is.”

Giving a further insight to the Connacht players’ collective state of mind, Bealham admitted: “I suppose if you just know your role inside out, you can just go out and play and you don’t have to think about it too much. If I know what rucks I have to hit and where I have to go in the field I can concentrate on just executing.”

Matter of fact

As for the win itself, Bealham was almost matter of fact in declaring: “It was a good win, yeah, and credit to the boys. We just structured our systems and we just stuck to what we knew and what we trained every day.

“I think composure was the biggest thing because sometimes, you have to chase the game and you can get out of your structures a bit but we just stuck to what we had been doing in training.”

It was Bealham's link play from Aki's offload which enabled Niyi Adeolokun to kick-start Connacht's comeback with their first try.

“I actually think Niyi just screamed at me and I said ‘take it man, I don’t want the ball’ and he did his thing and scored,” said Bealham with a smile. “Nah, we back ourselves and back our skills and we trained a lot during the week and it obviously translates quite well onto the game.”

It was also the 24-year-old who ensured Connacht's bonus point when running in their fourth try from Kieran Marmion's pass. "That was my first 'meat pie' for Connacht but the thing is, after Ultan Dillane storming around there it was more of a team try, and all I had to do was fall over."

Another key component of their win was Connacht's ascendancy in the scrum, albeit this was somewhat distorted by the yellow card given to James Cronin at scrum time; then, following the binning of Billy Holland, there was the penalty try against a seven-man Munster scrum, with Keith Earls packing down in the back-row.

Suffer

It was feared that Connacht would suffer after the departure of their long-serving ex-prop and scrum coach Dan McFarland at the end of last season, but it says everything about Jimmy Duffy’s ascension to the role of forwards coach that McFarland’s loss has scarcely been felt.

And Bealham admitted that the old adage of a good scrum being an eight-man effort applied.

“It is a whole eight effort, and we take a lot of pride in our scrum and the whole eight of us working hard and working together. We will take pride in looking back at that and we will take this week and look to improve again.”

European Champions Cup qualification having been achieved, a top-four place beckons next up away to Treviso on Friday week, but Bealham and co are seemingly immune from the mounting excitement and expectations enveloping Connacht now.

“I suppose we have our own little bubble here and we just focus on what we have to do and our own goals and just focusing on getting them done.

“We’ll come back to work next and review that game and see what we can improve because it would be a shame obviously to not finish what we started in the next two games.”