While Connacht won on their last visit to the Scarlets, Finlay Bealham only knows of defeat in Llanelli.
The Ireland international wasn’t involved on the night when the province were 29-23 winners at Parc y Scarlets in March 2022, their first and only win at a stadium that opened back in 2008. All in all, it had been 18 years since their previous win away in Llanelli, that one coming at the old Stradey Park.
Bealham has been to Llanelli six times and returned with six defeats during his time as a Connacht player. He’s hoping it’s lucky number seven when the province visits Dwayne Peel’s side this evening in the BKT United Rugby Championship.
“It’s a tough place to go and play for sure,” the 32-year-old says of his experiences away to the Scarlets.
“I think history hasn’t been too kind to us there, I think we’ve had one win in the last four or five times we’ve been there and during my career I don’t think I’ve ever won there.
“It will be a huge challenge for us, in terms of backing up the physical energy we’ve shown in the last two weeks. It’s a big challenge to bring that into an away game, decent travel for us and getting up to that level of intensity we’ve had in the last two weeks.
“It’s a big challenge but we had a good session there, it was absolute hell but everyone is in good form and we’re looking forward to the challenge. They’re a big, strong, Welsh pack and have good attacking flair as well. We’ll definitely need to be on our A-game.”
Having played both summer Tests for Ireland against South Africa, Bealham returned for Connacht in last week’s home opener against the Sharks at the Dexcom Stadium, as Pete Wilkins’ side picked up their first win of the season with a comeback 36-30 victory.
The tighthead is in part of an unchanged set of forwards, packing down alongside Denis Buckley and Dave Heffernan in the league’s most experienced front row trio; between them they’ve played 658 games for the province, with all three of them above 200 appearances in green.
“Having an experienced front-row is valuable, and we’ve played a lot of games together over a long period of time.
“You develop a lot of connection, and feel. We’re able to know what our standards are. We sit down as a committee group and preview and review. It’s like a glove when you come back in after a while. It’s like no time has passed. It’s a really good thing we have,” the 42-cap Ireland international adds.
While that starting front row packs a lot of experience, it’s an area the province are light on this season. The departures of Tiernan O’Halloran, Tom Farrell and Jarrad Butler among others now leaves Bealham as one of just six players in the senior squad to have played 100 or more games for Connacht.
That summer transition doesn’t appear to have had a negative effect however, with their encouraging performance away to Munster, in spite of a defeat, followed by a brilliant comeback win against the Sharks.
New signings like Ben Murphy and Josh Ioane have settled in well, while Cathal Forde and new captain Cian Prendergast have also started the campaign in determined fashion.
And Bealham says it was clear this summer that the province’s younger stars have taken on more responsibility over the summer.
“I think every year, for a lot of clubs, a lot of boys move on and last year we had a lot of experience leave, the likes of Tiernan [O’Halloran], Tom Farrell, who have bucket loads of caps for us.
“We’ve got a really good group of young players in the team. Even in the first few weeks I was in, I noticed a lot of young players taking on real control and real charge of their positional stuff, the likes of Mattie Devine talking in meetings really confidently.
“Having those young guys there who are full of energy and then also really curious about making themselves better to understand where they fit in the team, has been really good. We have a good group of young players, and a couple of older boys who have a good few caps and have been around the block. It’s a good blend of youth and experience.
“I picked up on it pretty early on, in terms of when I came back in from a summer break. Watching the boys in pre-season, myself and Bundee [Aki] were doing shuttles up the sideline and you could see how hard the boys were working.
“You’re in the meetings seeing all the work being done and that transferred well to the pre-season games and it’s transferred to the performance in the first two rounds, albeit one win and one loss and a tight one at the weekend, but I think the character and growth that’s in the group from last season to now has been really positive. We’re all in a pretty good place,” he added.
