Bohan benefits from Boyle’s injury with sensational Six Nations call-up
This game marked the official unveiling of the Clan Stand at Connacht’s newly developed Dexcom Stadium - a major step forward for the province and indeed for Irish rugby as a whole - with a sensational record-setting crowd of 12,481 in attendance.
Leinster came into the weekend on a nine-game winning strike that saw them fifth in the BTK United Rugby Championship before kick-off. Connacht began 14 points behind in 12th place having lost six of their previous seven league games, including a heavy defeat to Leinster three weeks prior at the Aviva.
The hosts, bouyed by the occasion, kept pace with Leinster for most of the game, with the sides ties at 13-13 at half time and 20-20 after an hour. But as they did in the reverse fixture, Leinster managed to pull away in the final quarter to leave Galway with the bonus-point win.
Perhaps its purely psychological with Connacht at this stage. They clung on in there with Leinster for the first hour, and then - as is so often the case - Leo Cullen’s men simply went up a gear going down the last stretch as the belief simply seemed to fall away from Stuart Lancaster’s side.
For Leinster, they have now won ten games on the bounce - without once putting in a complete 30-minute performance. That ability to eke out results when things haven’t been going their way has proved costly for Leinster over the last five years; have they turned a corner? Or are they just on the decline? Only time will tell.
Billy Bohan was playing in Division 2A of the All-Ireland League for Galway club Corinthians when he turned 20 in November, biding his time in the Connacht Academy.
The western province were well stocked at loose head, with fellow Newbridge College alum beginning to nail down the Connacht number one jersey ahead of the aging Denis Buckley. But when Duggan got injured in December, Lancaster called on Bohan to come in for his senior debut.
The gamble paid off, with the Kildare youngster making himself the first-choice loosehead for the Western province. After four consecutive starts, Bohan was selected last week as part of the Ireland XV squad scheduled to face England during the Six Nations.
Bohan was actually the senior veteran on his side of the scrum on Saturday evening as he squared off with Leinster debutant Niall Smyth. Connacht attacked the Leinster scrum and got on top in the first half, with Bohan a driving force.
Ireland are incredibly depleted at loosehead, and with Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy ruled out it was expected that Jack Boyle would be the man to start the Six Nations in the Irish number one shirt. So the sight of Boyke being carted off after 20 minutes at the Dexcom was a disaster for everyone - that is, everyone except Billy Bohan.
Having already taken advantage of an injury to Jordan Duggan, ousting him for the Connacht team; the injury to Boyle open the door for Bohan who received his international call-up just 24 hours later. He will now join Munster duo Mike Milne and Athy’s Jeremy Loughman as Andy Farrell’s loosehead options, and could very well make his Ireland debut during the championship.
There was an intriguing battle in the back row between Leinster’s Will Connors and Connacht captain Cian Prendergast.
Connors was busy around the ruck, but too often found himself on the wrong side of the referee’s whistle. Similarly, Prendergast was heroic at times, but also found himself handing over too many penalties to his native province - an often unavoidable occurrence for busy, hard-working back rowers.
Connor’s rumoured move to Connacht may be the best chance for him to add to his nine international caps, the last of which came in 2021. While Prendergast will be confident he has done enough to see game-time during the upcoming Six Nations.
Diarmuid Mangan was used as a blindside replacement off the bench and worked tirelessly when he came on. His ability to also play lock should mean he sees at least some game-time next month for Ireland XV.
