Another connacht rugby star on the rise

ROBBIE Henshaw ... Kieran Marmion ... and now it’s Caolin Blade who is the talk of Irish rugby, even in a week after Leinster, Munster and Ulster all had European Cup fixtures of huge importance.
Only 20, the dynamic attacking scrum-half who scored two sensational tries for Connacht in their 29-27 Challenge Cup win away to French club Bayonne last Saturday evening has burst into the spotlight and now the sky could be the limit for this versatile young sportsman who had already shown exciting promise in under-age Gaelic football and hurling.
From here on, it’ll almost certainly be all rugby — at least while Caolin, from Killaclogher, Ryehill, Monivea, is contracted to Connacht and it’s hugely encouraging that head coach Pat Lam was full of praise for his gutsy, fiercely determined scrum-half who had made only three appearances off the bench prior to the Connacht team’s visit to Basque country a week after Bayonne had lost heavily at Galway Sportsground, 42-19.