Next five fixtures: Sharks (H), Ospreys (A, Challenge Cup), Black Lion (H, Challenge Cup), Dragons (A), Ulster (A)<\/p>\n
It has been a difficult start to life in Galway for former England boss Stuart Lancaster, who replaced Pete Wilkins as Connacht head coach in the summer.<\/p>\n
After an opening win over Benetton was followed by the Storm Amy-enforced postponement of their Scarlets game, the western province lost to Cardiff, Bulls and Munster before the international break.<\/p>\n
The 28-27 loss to the Bulls in Galway and 17-15 reverse to Munster in Limerick were tough pills to swallow, but Lancaster has had a solid month to devise a plan for breathing new life into Connacht’s season. <\/p>\n
It starts with the visit of the Sharks to Dexcom Stadium on Saturday (19:45 GMT). After three defeats in their first four games, the South African side signed off before the November break with a 29-19 win over Scarlets. <\/p>\n
The Sharks will be without most of their Springboks, including Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth, Bongi Mbonambi, Ethan Hooker and Andre Esterhuizen. <\/p>\n
For the hosts, Ireland internationals Bundee Aki, Cian Prendergast and Finlay Bealham are available for selection, but Mack Hansen has been ruled out. <\/p>\n
Hansen, who starred at full-back in Ireland’s win over Australia earlier this month, is nursing hand and foot injuries with Connacht unsure on a timeline for the 27-year-old’s return. <\/p>\n
After facing the Sharks, Lancaster will lead Connacht into European action for the first time as the Challenge Cup returns with a trip to Ospreys followed by a home game against Georgian side Black Lion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next five fixtures: Sharks (H), Ospreys (A, Challenge Cup), Black Lion (H, Challenge Cup), Dragons (A), Ulster (A)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-314970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}