Elwood wants to finish with a flourish

Connacht coach Eric Elwood wants his men to finish an historic season with a flourish by ousting Aironi in their final home match of the campaign on Saturday at the Sportsground.

It will be an historic occasion as this will be the final away game Aironi ever play as they are being disbanded and replaced by another Italian franchise because of finances.

Elwood says that his men have the chance for a best ever league finish and he wants them to continue the form which saw off Heineken Cup semi-finalists Ulster at the weekend.

“We are delighted with that win, especially as we hadn’t beaten Ulster since 2005. We got a perfect start, to go 8-0 in front but then for some strange reason we let them back into it.

“When we had the momentum we didn’t build on it and let them back into the game and it was disappointing to be going in at half-time losing.

“But at the start of the second-half we scored a very good try and then looked to kick on but it was one of those games that was going to go down to the wire. But when it mattered we dug in and got the scores,” said Elwood.

The final RaboDirect PRO12 match of the season at the Sportsground — they will wrap up their campaign away to Glasgow the following week — gives them an opportunity to gain revenge on an Aironi side who have beaten them in Italy in each of the two years of their existence.

“We capable of playing a lot better than that,” said Elwood after the Ulster match.

“It was a beautiful evening for rugby, we got the perfect start but we never kicked on when we had the momentum. And then it looked like the game was going away from us but we got back into it and hung on.

“There is better to come and hopefully that will happen next week against Aironi.

”If we can win a game not being at our best in the scrum and lineout then tat is clearly something we can improve on,” he added.