What time and TV channel is Scarlets v Connacht on today in the URC?
Finlay Bealham explains what drives him to stay at the top of his game for Connacht and Ireland
Finlay Bealham says that his baby son Joaquin has provided the ultimate motivation for him to find his best form for Connacht and Ireland.
Bealham made his first appearance of the season for the province in the thrilling comeback win over the Sharks at the Dexcom Stadium and will start against Scarlets in Llanelli tonight.
The 33-year-old is determined to play to the max after finishing up his Test duties on Ireland's summer tour in South Africa with an idyllic if very different kind of summer break in Spain with his wife, Sarah, and their eight-month-old.
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Out went the once customary trips to the pool in the hottest part of the day restaurant visits at night. "It was more of a lunch thing, barbecues and then an early night," said Bealham. "But we had great craic.
"We’d often bring the wee man down the pool before it got too hot and we’d have a great laugh. It was a nice recharge."
Joaquin's arrival has reminded Bealham that he has to stay at the top of his game to provide for his family's future.
"No matter if I’ve had a good day at the office or if the s*** has hit the fan, I can always come home and the little boss man is just there, and I do the Joaquin shark," he smiled.
"He’s delighted to see me. It just gives me an added incentive to keep performing, and to keep on working at the optimal. Because as long as I do that, I can provide for him and look after Sarah.
"Ultimately family is the number one thing in my life, without going too deep, but when I come home, he's so happy to see big Dad.
"He thinks Mom is the bad cop and I’m just there to have fun all the time. He just wants me to play with him, have a wrestle, mess around. That’s my job, really, just make him laugh."
Where is the game on?
The game takes place at Parc Y Scarlets in Llanelli
What time is kick-off?
The game kicks off at 7.35pm (Irish time) on Friday
What TV channel is it on and can I stream it?
It is being shown live on TG4 and Premier Sports 1. It will be live streamed on URC.tv
Betting Odds
Scarlets 23/10 to win, Connacht 4/11 to win; 19/1 draw
Teams
Scarlets: Ioan Nicholas, Tom Rogers, Johnny Williams, Eddie James, Blair Murray, Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies, Alec Hepburn, Ryan Elias, Henry Thomas, Sam Lousi, Max Douglas, Josh Macleod (CAPT), Dan Davis, Taine Plumtree
Replacements: Marnus van der Merwe, Kemsley Mathias, Sam Wainwright, Alex Craig, Carwyn Tuipulotu, Efan Jones, Ioan Lloyd, Macs Page
Connacht: Santiago Cordero, Mack Hansen, Cathal Forde, Bundee Aki, Piers O’Conor, Jack Carty, Ben Murphy, Denis Buckley, Dave Heffernan, Finlay Bealham, Niall Murray, David O’Connor, Josh Murphy, Conor Oliver, Cian Prendergast (CAPT)
Replacements: Dylan Tierney-Martin, Peter Dooley, Temi Lasisi, Oisin Dowling, Paul Boyle, Caolin Blade, David Hawkshaw, Shayne Bolton.
Bealham joined Connacht's pre-season six weeks in and was happy to get 55 minutes under his belt against the Sharks.
But he really loved that Connacht dug themselves out of the hole they made for themselves by overcoming a 20-point half-time deficit - and he believes that's all part of a change for the better in the squad.
"It would have been nice if the game was a bit more comfortable alright, but we dug ourselves into a hole and then proceeded to keep digging that hole deeper and then deeper and then deeper," he said.
"We came in at half time and we’re like, ‘right lads, we’ve dug ourselves in a fair hole here, we’d better try to get out of it'.
"Fair play to everyone in the second half, and I think maybe previously in the past we could have been really playing within ourselves from a position like that. Not necessarily throwing the towel in, but we could have just not played to our fullest extent.
"At half time there was a real shift in the mindset. The way we started the game at the weekend, we started really well for the first 15-20 minutes and then started digging the grave.
"Thankfully we came out in the second half and just focused on doing our job to the utmost with the most intensity we can, and fortunately came out with the win, even though we probably gave all of our fans a major scare."
As for facing the Scarlets on their patch, Bealham acknowledges how tough a place it is to go and adds that history hasn't been kind to Connacht there.
But Connacht do have Bundee Aki starting in his first appearance of the season, while the experienced Jack Carty replaces Josh Ioane, who is going through his return to play protocols.
"During my career I don't think I’ve ever won there," he said. "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.
"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."
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