Three Sligo players are in the Connacht Eagles squad for round two of the British & Irish Cup and the trip to play London Irish tomorrow. Jason East is in the front row, while Stephen Kerins and Shane O’Hehir are among the replacements.Conan O\’Donnell is ruled out through injury.In total, there are six personnel changes from the starting XV that lined out against Cornish Pirates in the opening round five days ago.
Dave Panter is drafted in from Corinthians RFC to start at fullback.Luke Carty, younger brother of senior out half Jack, swaps the number 15 shirt for 10 this week while Mitch Lam, who scored all ten points last Sunday, lines out at inside centre.Wing Adam Leavy and scrumhalf Conor McKeon from the Connacht Academy are further personnel changes to the youthful backline. Experienced lock Lewis Stevenson is named in the second row where he partners this week’s team captain Danny Qualter.
Commenting on the upcoming game, Mossy Lawler said:”It\’s another big challenge this week as we head over to London Irish with a very young and relatively inexperienced group but the team are determined to put in a performance we can be proud of. There were some positive aspects to our game last week, despite the loss, but we know we will need to build on these and improve across the board to give us a chance tomorrow.”
Connacht Eagles team to face London Irish, Madejski Stadium, Sat October 22nd, 3pm. Connacht senior caps and affiliated club in brackets U15 Dave Panter (Corinthians RFC) 14 Adam Leavy (Galwegians RFC) 13 Rory Parata (18) (Galwegians RFC) 12 Mitch Lam (Galwegians RFC) Ed O\’Keeffe (Galwegians RFC) Luke Carty (Buccaneers RFC) Conor McKeon (2) (Buccaneers RFC) Cronan Gleeson (Nenagh RFC) Pat O\’Toole (Corinthians RFC) Jason East (Galwegians RFC)\r\n\r\n4 Lewis Stevenson (6)Danny Qualter (captain) (14) Buccaneers RFC) Marc Kelly (Galwegians RFC) James Connolly (21) (Corinthians RFC)n8 Stephen McVeigh (Buccaneers RFC)16 Shane O\’Hehir (Sligo RFC) 17 Ja Naughton (Galwegians RFC) n18 Sean Masterson (Corinthians RFC) 19 Josh Pim (Galwegians RFC) 20 Stephen Kerins (Corinthians RFC) 21 Jordan Conroy (Buccaneers RFC) 22 Joe Murphy (Corinthians)
Meanwhile, the Connacht senior team to face Zebre in round 2 of the European Champions Cup has been named. Ahead of the trip to Italy, Pat Lam has made seven personnel changes from the side that defeated Toulouse six days ago.In the absence of Tiernan O\’Halloran due to injury, Cian Kelleher starts at fullback for the second time this season. New signing Stacey Ili is handed his first start having made two recent appearances from the bench.
