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Connacht 'need to win' but won't sacrifice their principles

Connacht are on a four game losing streak
Connacht are on a four game losing streak

Connacht senior coach Pete Wilkins doesn't believe the province have to sacrifice their open style of rugby in a bid to end their losing run.

After a stretch of four defeats in row in all competitions, Connacht have fallen to 10th in the United Rugby Championship table.

And they are crucially nine points behind the next best-placed Irish team (Munster), leaving their hopes of qualifying for the Heineken Champions Cup next season quite slim.

The western province return from their bye-week with a tough looking trip to Llanelli to face the Scarlets, where they haven't won in 18 years, while they also let a 20-point half time lead slip at Parc Y Scarlets last season, eventually losing 41-26.

They had gained huge praise for their all-action style of play earlier this season, which led to them securing a place in the last 16 of the Champions Cup.

But after four defeats in a row, pressure is starting to mount on Wilkins and head coach Andy Friend to turn attractive rugby into winning rugby.

Wilkins believes that they can turn the corner without betraying their 'Fast, Relentless, Adaptable' principles.

"I think for us there isn't the need to sacrifice anything we've been aiming for previously. The reason for that is because as much as we want to play with ambition and entertain the fans and have an expansive brand, the elements that go into it are things that will set us up to win games.

"It's not aesthetics for the sake of it. There's a consistency of message and that's important for the players to know we aren't compromising anything we wanted to do initially. It is still the best path.

"It's about doing what we wanted to do all along but doing it better.

"We've all been around sport long enough to know sometimes you can't believe a win is around the corner, and sometimes you can't believe you're going to lose.

"The wheel turns as long as you put in the hard work and preparation. That wheel will turn for us," Wilkins said this afternoon.

In good news for the province, centre Tom Farrell (below) has returned to full training having suffered an ankle injury in the defeat to Glasgow in late January, while tighthead Jack Aungier is close to a return following a rib injury.

With no URC game last weekend, the squad were given several days off in the wake of their Interpro' defeat to Ulster on 4 February, before attention turned to their upcoming block of three games.

Wilkins says the break has allowed them reset after a tough January run.

"It's really important to have that break, there's the physical and mental aspect of the players being de-loaded and coming back fresher.

"It's a great chance for coaches to step back and look at the pattern of those games and how they played out and diagnose the problems we had.

"Those last two weeks with Glasgow and Ulster we probably didn't get a chance to implement things on the training ground we wanted to. We had two days last week where we could train with good intensity and get volume into the lads to set us up for this three game block.

"It's about us delivering those 80 minutes of applied pressure to make sure we can do well.

"We need to win this week, it's important to bounce back from that previous run of games before the break. It's important when you start a mini block of games and it's important for our playoff and Champions Cup ambitions."

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