So then, Champions Cup rugby in Elverys MacHale Park?

IT has been reported that European Champions Cup rugby could be played in the home of Mayo GAA.

After the province announced ambitious expansion plans, CEO Willie Ruane – a native of Ballina – confirmed Connacht Rugby would be looking into the possibility of staging at least one Champions Cup game in Elverys MacHale Park, Castlebar, next season.

“It would be foolish to rule anything out,” he stated. “If something makes sense, we'll look at it.”

Since the arrival of current head coach Pat Lam, Connacht have taken training sessions and pre-season games around the province. The proposal to play an in-season game in MacHale Park would be a further step on again, but Ruane said it is something they will look at closely.

Meanwhile, speaking yesterday (Wednesday, May 18) in Dublin at the launch of Grassroots to Green Shirts, a vision and strategy document for the next four years, Ruane outlined what Connacht Rugby hopes to achieve and how it is going to achieve it.

“We have spent the last 12 months working on the overall vision and purpose of Connacht Rugby. Then we built out from there in terms of our key objectives, the big things we want to achieve and the detail behind those big objectives.

“We want everyone invested in Connacht Rugby, supporters included, to have a real sense of what we are about and what we are working towards day to day. This vision and strategy is for everyone to see and will ensure that we are all held to our own standards for the continued success of rugby in the province.”

Ruane, who was joined in Dublin by Pat Lam, Nigel Carolan, academy manager, and Eric Elwood, domestic rugby manager, said an 'utmost priority' for Connacht Rugby is a new stadium in Galway either on the site of the current facility at the Sportsground on College Road or in an entirely new location. The new stadium is expected to have a capacity of at least 10,000 but may be 'scaleable' so that it can be expanded if the need arises.

Back to on-field matters, and a potential obstacle to MacHale Park staging a Champions Cup match is that the GAA would have to discuss the proposal at congress in February. That would be too late for next season – unless Connacht make the knockout stages of the competition.