Connacht host the colourful Stade Francais at the Sportsground in their Heineken Champions Cup opener. Connacht have played some really exciting rugby this season in the URC and it'll be interesting to see if they can replicate it in Europe. Here's how to watch Connacht vs Stade Francais and team news.
How to watch Connacht vs Stade Francais
Connacht vs Stade Francais takes place on Sunday 12th December and kick off is at 1pm.
The game is live on BT Sport 3 and their coverage begins at 12:45pm.
Team News
Connacht were very good at times in their match against Leinster on Saturday, but two tries either side of halftime stopped all momentum Connacht had. For the first 25 minutes or so Connacht were on top of Leinster and looked like they'll win. Even when the game was all but lost Connacht still played their expansive, offload-heavy game and scored a wonderful try off a lineout when Conor Oliver went under the posts.
Connacht make five changes from their trip to the RDS last weekend as Shane Delahunt, Oisín Dowling, Niall Murray, Cian Prendergast and Shayne Bolton all come into the starting XV. Oran McNulty keeps his spot at fullback as he makes his European debut alongside Bolton and Mack Hansen.
Stade Francais have had a mixed season so far. They sit lowly in tenth place but last time out they beat Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle 25-20. The big stars for the Parisiens are former All Black centre Ngani Laumape and Argentina internationals Nicolas Sanchez and Marcos Kremer.
🔙🏆 @ChampionsCup
📋 𝕃𝔼 𝕏𝕍 face au @connachtrugby dimanche au Galway Sportsground (14:00 heure française) !
Avec @Freshmile_fr ⚡️ #CONvSFP pic.twitter.com/QtGDy9SDzl— Stade Français Paris (@SFParisRugby) December 10, 2021
Connacht have a real chance to lay down a marker here as Stade Francais have a very poor away record. They've only won once away all season and in they won't be used to the wild conditions at the Sportsground.
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