18 hours Ago By [email protected] (Michael Scully)
Mack Hansen is ready to prove his fitness with Connacht against Dragons on Saturday - and ahead of Ireland's Autumn series showdown with the All Blacks on November 8. However Dave Heffernan could miss the last fixture of the six-week block before the break in URC fixtures during the November Test window. Heffernan is the hooker most likely to start against New Zealand due to the injury crisis in the position for Andy Farrell and, having been scheduled to do media interviews for the province this morning, back row Paul Boyle was put forward instead.
READ MORE: Graham Rowntree angry, two-try Jacob Stockdale disappointed, Leo Cullen purring over RG Snyman's form - URC Round 5 wrap READ MORE: RG Snyman a cut above the rest as Leinster roll over Connacht in Galway Hansen had to sit out last Saturday loss to Leinster at the Dexcom Stadium with what Connacht described on Friday as a 'minor hip injury'. But the exciting winger is poised to play in Galway this weekend and will be hopeful of doing enough to earn a recall from Andy Farrell - due to injury he hasn't played for Ireland since last year's World Cup in France. "I’m hoping Mack will be available, he’s certainly down to train today," said Connacht boss Pete Wilkins.
"I’m hoping he’s going to be back on deck. "He had a hip-pointer injury in that Ulster game about 10 minutes in that was pretty sore and he battled through without being able to shake it off in time for the Leinster game, so I am optimistic he will be involved this week." Wilkins also leapt to the defence of his new No.
10 Josh Ioane, who struggled with his kicking game in the very windy conditions at the Dexcom Stadium against Leinster - having had previous problems with kicking to touch already this season. "Josh is having to adapt to in terms of the weather conditions up here," said Wilkins of the once-capped All Black who signed from the Chiefs in the summer. "It’s not simply the wind that affects how far you can kick the ball or kicking across the wind but it affects the drop of the ball onto your foot.
"For kickers, it’s such a small margin for error. Depending on the type of ball drop you have you can leave yourself more exposed to the conditions. "It’s something Josh is having to work really hard on, he’s doing a tremendous amount of work with that, the growth is there.
The unfortunate thing is that it’s shown up a couple of times in those missed kicks to touch from penalties. "The important bit from my end is that I keep encouraging him to be positive with it and be brave with it. We’d rather aim for the 5m line in our kicks into the 22 to give us that scoring opportunity, rather than be too cautious.
We want to go for it in every sense of the game." Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.
