\u201cA pretty good night,\u201d said Lancaster of his side\u2019s first victory over the English side in four meetings, and also the most points Connacht have scored against an English team in the European competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a moment on 70 minutes when the crowd was singing The Fields of Athenry, and it was very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win came on the back of a \u201chard training week\u201d when Lancaster pushed his players to the limit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always talked about playing for the full 80 minutes, and when we had an eight-day lead into the game. I put them through the mill on Tuesday, and even on Thursday. But it pays off. I know they can dig deep, and I know they\u2019ve got speed and endurance in them.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the best start for the home side after conceding tries to Sione Va\u2019eneku and Noah Caluori, but Connacht responded with three first-half tries through captain Cian Prendergast, Cathal Forde and Shamus Hurley-Langton. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to earn the right. We were playing a champion team \u2013 full of internationals who had won the competition three times \u2013 and we went 12 points down. So we had to find a way. But the three tries in the first half were excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Connacht conceded before half-time, with a resulting yellow card, Lancaster says Prendergast\u2019s second try was \u201csuch a big moment\u201d.<\/p>\n
Despite the recent disappointing 36-19 URC loss to Glasgow, Lancaster admitted he was always confident in the direction he was leading his players.<\/p>\n
![\"Players](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792333810_857_XBVUN5RH26QTOXKZO5RBDGH7TM.jpg\")
Players contest a lineout during the Champions Cup game at the Dexcom Stadium. Photograph: Brian Lawless\/PA <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the bottom line. I\u2019m confident in the players. I\u2019m confident in the coaching group. I\u2019m confident in the training we\u2019re doing. I\u2019m confident that if we keep working at it the way in which we do, then we\u2019ll keep getting the rewards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good thing is, as well, I\u2019m looking around the changing room after the game, and there\u2019s a whole lot of lads desperate to play who are really good players.\u201d <\/p>\n
Among those missing from Saturday\u2019s victory were Mack Hansen, Se\u00e1n Naughton, Harry West, Ben Murphy, Finlay Bealham, Dave Heffernan, and Will Connors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got some great forwards to come back. So it\u2019s great to win for the squad, but obviously we need to double down on the URC for five games, and then hopefully we\u2019ll get a good group of players going off to Ireland to play for the national team.\u201d<\/p>\n
SCORING SEQUENCE \u2013 6 mins: Va\u2019eneku try, Farrell con, 0-7; 12: Caluori try, 0-12; 17: Prendergast try, Gilbert con, 7-12; 23: Forde try, 12-12; 29: Hurley-Langton try, Frawley con, 19-12; 40: Tomkins try, Farrell con 19-19. Half-time 19-19. 47: Prendergast try, Gilbert con, 26-19; 50: Segun try 26-24; 51: Frawley try, Gilbert con 33-24; 57: Va\u2019eneku try, Farrell con, 33-31, 60: Blade try, 38-31, 63: Frawley try, Gilbert con 45-31; 79: Daly try, 45-36.<\/p>\n
CONNACHT: S Gilbert; F Treacy, C Forde, B Aki, S Jennings; C Frawley, C Reilly; F van Wyk, M Victory, S Illo; D Murray, J Murphy; C Prendergast (capt), S Hurley-Langton, S Jansen. <\/p>\n
Replacements: D Ryan for Jennings (12 mins); B Bohan for Van Wyk (53); E de Buitl\u00e9ar for Victory, Blade for Reilly (both 55); T Connolly for Illo (55-63); J Ioane for Aki (62); S O\u2019Brien for Jansen, N Murray for Murphy (both 65).<\/p>\n
Yellow card: Hurley Langton (41 mins). <\/p>\n
SARACENS: E Daly; N Caluori, N Tompkins, S Va\u2019enuku, R Segun; O Farrell, T Williams; E Mawi, J George, M Street; O Sodeke, H Tizard; M Itoje (capt), T Knight, B Earl. <\/p>\n
Replacements: N Isiekwe for Sodeke (30 mins); P Brantingham for Mawai (50); E Clarke for George (51); N Michelow for Earl (67); C Weilbach for Street, F Burke for S Va\u2019enuku (both 67).<\/p>\n
Referee: Pierre Brousset (Fra).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Champions Cup: Connacht 45 Saracens 36 Connacht\u2019s European journey began with a statement victory over three-times Champions Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[32728,28454,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-658474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-champions-cup","tag-connacht-rugby","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658474","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=658474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}