Battle-scarred but Connacht's Ireland duo good to go

Connacht boss Pete Wilkins is confident Ireland duo Bundee Aki and Finlay Bealham will be "fighting fit" for the Six Nations after coming through a bruising Champions Cup encounter with Bristol on Friday night.

Andy Farrell's side, already missing Connacht wing Mack Hansen with a shoulder injury, begin the defence of their title against France on 2 February in Marseille.

World Rugby player of the year nominee Aki was one of the Westerners' standout performers as they secured a Challenge Cup place with a dominant 27-10 win over the Bears at the Dexcom Stadium.

The 33-year-old centre limped off at half-time but returned to finish out the game and was spotted laughing at the end as Connacht got the job done on a freezing night in Galway with a fifth-place finish in Pool 1 enough to progress in Europe albeit dropping out of the top tier.

"Bundee had a collision onto his knee so there wasn't anything structural there," Wilkins told RTÉ Sport.

"It was pretty sore, you could see that in the way he was moving but there was no issue with him battling through."

Bealham, who started three of Ireland's Six Nations games last season, was in the wars in Galway.

The tighthead took a boot to the head in an incident that saw Bristol lock Josh Caulfield sent off.

That necessitated a ten-minute blood-sub change, while the Australian native was also removed at half-time with Jack Aungier subbed on again.

However, he was good to go again in the 55th minute when Aungier needed some sideline repairs.

"Finlay (above) obviously from that boot to the face, he had a bit of interference with his vision from that but we took him off at half-time, more so as a precaution in case there was any significant damage done," added Wilkins.

"Hopefully they'll both be