Connacht will benefit from fresh "rugby perspectives" as they kick off their BKT URC campaign with a new coaching ticket, says Pete Wilkins.
Andy Friend, who was director of rugby at the province, left his role at the end of last season after five years at the Sportsground.
Wilkins, who as head coach is the new man in charge, over the summer added legendary Connacht captain John Muldoon, Champions Cup winner Scott Fardy and double U20 Grand Slam-winning attack coach Mark Sexton to the backroom staff.
The club finished the 2022/23 regular season in seventh but made it to the semi-finals of the play-offs and secured Champions Cup qualification.
They start a new domestic season with a home game against the Ospreys this afternoon (3pm) and have three debutants, Joe Joyce, JJ Hanrahan and Andrew Smith, named to start, and another three, Tadgh McElroy, Seán O'Brien and Liam McNamara, on the bench.
Muldoon (above), who led the team to Pro12 glory in 2016 is the new lineout and maul coach, while ex-Leinster and Wallabies flanker Fardy is the defence coach.
"It’s a fresh chapter for the club," said Wilkins.
"There is a bit of familiarity there but the opportunity to bring in the new guys with Scott Fardy, John Muldoon and Mark Sexton, that freshening up of the coaches room is really important.
"Not just for the different voices but for the different ideas and different rugby perspectives.
"It’s different for me to be the man in charge.
"As much as I had a large input into how we trained and our game planning and other aspects of the rugby or the programme on the field over the last season or two, to be the head man and not going down the corridor to have to run things by other people or get their permission, it is different.
"With that comes great accountability but massive responsibility as well.
"The great thing is we’ve had a really long pre-season for those guys to bed in, the new coaches, but for me also to find my rhythm as a head coach and there’ll be plenty of challenges as we go but the energy around the place is brilliant and we are looking forward to getting started.
"For me it’s my seventh year here. Collie Tucker [assistant coach] going around in that scrum and breakdown role, was a really important part of putting together that coaching room when I had licence to do that."
Meanwhile, Wilkins confirmed that there are no plans for McNamara (below) and Smith to join up with the Ireland Sevens panel this season.
The duo were part of the Ireland squad that secured qualification for next year's Olympic Games in Paris.
"No, that’s not part of the contract," said the English man.
"Liam and Andrew are with us full-time. Now if there is a situation when one of them were not getting opportunities, we could have some conversations then. But for now they’re totally committed to us."
This afternoon's clash is the first of three home games in a row for the province and Wilkins is expecting a tough battle against an Ospreys side that finished 13th last season.
"Toby [Booth, head coach] has a team that is really well-organised in terms of their first-phase play, their kick chase, all those fundamentals of the game that give them the structure to play off," he said.
"So we’ll have to play really well, particularly being at home we want to assert out style of play and make a statement about what we want to do this season. But we definitely need to earn the right to do that and we know it will be a big challenge."
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