By Sea_point
May 3 2007

Connacht coach Michael Bradley has made five changes to his Connacht squad for Friday nights game which is being televised on BBC2 Wales and Setanta Sports. He has named Ronan Loughney in his panel for the first time since suffering a knee injury in a friendly against Narbonne last August.

Dragons v Connacht  

 

Date: Friday, 4 May       Kick-off: 1915 BST

Venue: Rodney Parade, Newport

Watch: BBC Two Wales (Scrum V) & Online

Listen: GBFM (TBC), NewstalkFM, or Magners MatchdayLive

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Connacht

 

Connacht coach Michael Bradley has made five changes to his Connacht squad for Friday nights game.

 

Bradley has named Ronan Loughney in his panel for the first time since suffering a knee injury in a pre-season friendly against Narbonne last August.

 

The return of the former Ireland U21 international is a major boost for the province as he steps up to take the place of Brett Sturgess.

 

Mark McHugh having recovered from a groin injury sustained against the Cardiff Blues a month ago, and is now likely to become the seventh Connacht player to reach 100 caps for the province in Friday's match. A fitting finale as McHugh heads to the south of France to play next season for Montpellier.

 

Mark takes the place of David Slemen in the squad while Ted Robinson is recalled after recovering from a hamstring injury in place of the unlucky Ireland U20 Grand Slam winner, Aidan Wynne.

 

Stephen Knoop has also recovered from a hamstring injury to be named in place of Ray Hogan and David McGowan is in the squad in place of the injured Matt Lacey.

 

 

"In the last few seasons we've managed to beat the Dragons at home only to lose to them in Wales so we know just how strong they are," said Connacht coach Michael Bradley.

 

"At the same time we're looking to finish our season on a high note and see this as an ideal opportunity to do so, as building some momentum before travelling to Wales again the following week when we play the Scarlets."

 

The Dragons

 

The Dragons have targeted the one point they need to ensure a shot at next season's Heineken Cup from Friday's Magners League visit of Connacht.

That would mean the Irish province could only draw level with them in the table, and the Dragons have a vastly superior points difference.

 

Finishing above Connacht and Borders would give the Dragons a Heineken play off spot, if the Cup goes ahead.

 

"It's a key game to build a platform for next year," said coach Paul Turner.

 

"We've blooded a lot of youngsters this season and I was proud of them in the midweek defeat to the Blues."

 

The Dragons will be without Nic Fitisemanu, Nathan Brew, Craig Warlow and Lee Harrison, while Rhys Thomas (muscle injury), Aled brew (back), Colin Charvis (elbow), Paul Emerick (knee) and Peter Sidoli (broken hand) will be monitored.

 

Whoever makes a potential Heineken Cup play-off will face the third-best Italian province, Overmach Parma having beaten the Dragons in last year's corresponding fixture at Rodney Parade.

 

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Record V Dragons

 

Wins	3
Loss	4
For	121
Agst	144

 

Previous Encounters
23 Nov 2003	14:30	Dragons	28	-	19	Connacht	Newport
1 May 2004	14:30	Connacht	14	-	32	Dragons	Galway
28 Nov 2004	13:05	Connacht	19	-	14	Dragons	Galway
16 Apr 2005	17:30	Dragons	24	-	19	Connacht	Newport
6 Jan 2006	19:10	Dragons	27	-	19	Connacht	Newport
15 Apr 2006	14:30	Connacht	15	-	10	Dragons	Galway
13 Oct 2006	18:30	Connacht	16	-	9	Dragons	Galway

 

Dragons: Kevin Morgan (capt); Richard Fussell, Paul Emerick, Gareth Maule, Aled Brew; Ceri Sweeney, Alex Walker; Adam Black, Steve Jones, Lee Harrison, Ian Gough, Luke Charteris, Joe Bearman, Colin Charvis, Michael Owen.

Replacements (from): Ben Daly, Jamie Corsi, Andrew Hall, Dan Lydiate, Gareth Wyatt, Aled Thomas, Phil Dollman, Gareth Baber.

Connacht: G Duffy; D Yapp, D Riordan, J Hearty, C McPhillips; P Warwick, C Keane; B Wilkinson, J Fogarty (capt), S Knoop; D Gannon, A Farley; J Muldoon, R Ofisa, C Rigney.

Replacements: A Flavin, R Loughney, M Swift, D McGowan, P Durcan, M McHugh, T Robinson.

Referee: Malcolm Changleng (Scotland)