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Keith Wood shares his view on Connacht's chances of overcoming Toulouse away from home

Keith Wood believes Connacht have a good chance when they come up against Toulouse in the Europea...



Keith Wood shares his view on...
Rugby

Keith Wood shares his view on Connacht's chances of overcoming Toulouse away from home

Keith Wood believes Connacht have a good chance when they come up against Toulouse in the European Champions Cup on Sunday.

Pat Lam's team will travel to Stadium Municipal, knowing a win would secure top spot in Pool 2 as well as qualification for the knockout stages of the competition.

Defeat would likely see the Irish province fall short. Before kick off, they hold a four point lead over Toulouse - who they have already beaten in a thrilling match at the Sportsgrounds - but a bonus point win for the French side would see Connacht leapfrogged. 

With second placed Wasps playing a Zebre side who have lost five from five in the pool, Connacht know the bulk of their hopes lie with a landmark away win over Toulouse. 

"I think they've got a really good chance. It comes down to that 10 minutes after the first five [minutes] at the weekend where with the changes that they have in the team, they still continued to play in the style that they'd want to play, which is laudable," said Wood on Off The Ball.

"The only problem is unless those passes go to hand. They were the only real options and chances that they had for Zebre to score, came from mistakes inside their '22.

"And I just thought they can score so easily at the start, that they felt they'd just be able to continue and run it willy nilly out of their own '22. And I know they don't want to kick the ball - I think they kicked the ball three times in the whole game which is just amazing. It's an amazing style of play. But they were playing against Zebre.

"If they suddenly gave up 14 points to Toulouse down in Toulouse, I just think they could really, really struggle with it. Toulouse are not the team of old but they are a proud team in the competition and they will still want to play very well. They're playing at home. They want to get their own win and I'd just say, if Connacht could mix it up a tiny bit - and maybe that flies in the face of everything that got them far last year - but they may need to mix it up a little bit. They may need to clear their lines sometimes because when they do it perfectly, they put the opposition under pressure. It's very hard to be perfect in the south of France."  

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