{"id":267251,"date":"2026-01-27T22:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T22:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/267251\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T22:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T22:51:07","slug":"connacht-see-will-connorss-potential-as-a-leader-after-backrow-signs-from-leinster-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/267251\/","title":{"rendered":"Connacht see Will Connors\u2019s \u2018potential as a leader\u2019 after backrow signs from Leinster \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connacht<\/a> senior assistant coach Rod Seib believes Will Connors<\/a> \u201chas real potential as a leader\u201d after the province announced the signing of the 29-year-old backrow from Leinster<\/a> on a two-year deal on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen Will\u2019s ability first-hand and I know he\u2019ll be another big asset to Connacht next season,\u201d said Seib. \u201cHis tackling ability and defensive work-rate is well known, but he has real attacking strengths too, which I\u2019m looking forward to developing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith a positive personality, he brings great energy to the group and has real potential as a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connacht are coming off a huge weekend after the official opening of the redeveloped Dexcom Stadium, but the 34-23 defeat to Leinster \u2013 their fourth straight reverse in the URC \u2013 hit the players hard. <\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly the feeling and the changing room at the end of the game, the boys were gutted, absolutely gutted,\u201d admitted Seib<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we managed the game really quite well, but there were some isolated incidents that allowed Leinster to slip back into it. So we need to be making sure we don\u2019t have those slips and have consistency throughout the 80 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seib believes the players need to park the result as they prepare for a significant away fixture against Zebre in Italy next Saturday.<\/p>\n

Once a win in Parma was a given, but Seib knows their opponents will be ready and waiting in a bid to lift themselves from the bottom of the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe danger for us is we had a physically and emotionally draining game on the weekend, and the boys were spent,\u201d said Seib.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to make sure we freshen the players up, and they\u2019re in the right head space also. Because if our mindset is slightly off point, we\u2019re going to get a right shock you know. So we need to make sure we\u2019re emotionally and physically ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Connacht need to add to their current poor return of just two league wins, boosted by seven bonus points, Seib says there is \u201ccertainly no panic\u201d despite the fact they lie 14th in the table, just four points ahead of Zebre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys register the fact that we\u2019ve got a really important game to get momentum moving in our direction, particularly as we go into a little bit of a break here. So we want to finish this block on a high.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, when you look at the ladder, we want to be making sure we\u2019re collecting maximum points from each weekend when we can.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is we know we need to be picking up wins, but there\u2019s certainly no panic.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connacht senior assistant coach Rod Seib believes Will Connors \u201chas real potential as a leader\u201d after the province…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28454,61,60,112,14881,28578],"class_list":["post-267251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-connacht-rugby","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports","tag-united-rugby-championship","tag-will-connors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}