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Bradley hunting Euro finish

Monday 28th April 2008

Euro Lifeline: Bradley needs Munster to defeat Ulster on Wednesday to open the HEC door

Connacht coach Michael Bradley is looking at Friday's Magners League clash with Cardiff Blues as being a prime opportunity to gain some ground on Ulster and still qualify for next season's Heineken Cup.

With two home games remaining in the current campaign, the Connacht coach feels that his side are in a strong position for the run-in.

"Our approach to this game is that it's an opportunity to still qualify for next season's Heineken Cup," he said.

"We've been playing well enough and we'll be trying to match the level of performance we've achieved in recent weeks.

"Hopefully we'll be able to beat Cardiff and keep qualification alive until the final day of the season against the Ospreys."

The league's basement side will have their eyes elsewhere this week though, as they'll be hoping that European finalists Munster do them a favour at Ravenhill on Wednesday.

However, in Connacht's previous outing they had a superb away win against the Dragons, which Bradley feels could well build momentum going into the final two weeks of the season.

"We played quite well in the first half and varied our play and it kept the Dragons at bay," he said.

"They weren't able to anticipate what we were doing and also it created opportunities for us and I thought we got the better of the first half.

"In the second half the Dragons readjusted and created a lot of chances themselves and had a lot of opportunities to win the game in the third quarter.

"But we survived with some excellent defensive work in particular from Conor McPhillips. Then having gotten one opportunity in the second half to score, we took it.

"To get the four points in an away win against a Welsh side was very pleasing and it keeps us in with an opportunity going into this week's game against Cardiff."

Elsewhere in the competition, Edinburgh have announced that National Academy players Sean Crombie, Kyle Traynor and Steven Turnbull have all been elevated to professional status after being handed contracts.

The promising youngsters are added to a squad with an average age of just 26, but despite their relative inexperience, Edinburgh are still targeting their best-ever finish of fourth spot in the Magners League.

Their arrivals strengthen the front-five department with hooker Crombie, prop Traynor and lock Turnbull all shining during the Scottish Premier One season with their respective clubs.