{"id":411509,"date":"2026-04-22T09:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T09:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/411509\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T09:34:09","slug":"cian-tracey-how-young-prop-idols-billy-bohan-20-and-sam-illo-25-are-spearheading-exciting-new-connacht-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/411509\/","title":{"rendered":"Cian Tracey: How young prop idols Billy Bohan (20) and Sam Illo (25) are spearheading exciting new Connacht era"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Connacht's Billy Bohan in action against DHL Stormers during the United Rugby Championship match in Cape Town, South Africa last weekend. Photo: Shaun Roy\/Sportsfile\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b9163f85-58a8-49ab-97dc-7c3ce5f8d310.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Connacht&#8217;s Billy Bohan in action against DHL Stormers during the United Rugby Championship match in Cape Town, South Africa last weekend. Photo: Shaun Roy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">When Stuart Lancaster decided to leave two of Connacht\u2019s most experienced Lions \u2013 Bundee Aki and Finlay Bealham \u2013 at home for his side\u2019s URC tour to South Africa, many supporters feared the worst.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Aki has been back to his best since he returned from suspension, while Bealham\u2019s nous would also have been very useful for two tough games against the Stormers and the Lions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connacht&#8217;s Billy Bohan in action against DHL Stormers during the United Rugby Championship match in Cape Town, South&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13503,28454,61,60,112,28460],"class_list":{"0":"post-411509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cian-tracey","9":"tag-connacht-rugby","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-stuart-lancaster"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411509","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=411509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}