Finlay Bealham boot just a 'precaution', says Connacht defence coach Scott Fardy

Connacht have not ruled anyone out of Saturday's BKT URC clash with the Bulls and say Finlay Bealham’s protective boot is just a precaution.

Pete Wilkins' side beat the Sharks 13-12 on Saturday to record their fourth win from five games in the championship.

Ireland prop Bealham, who was making his return after the World Cup lay-off, played 57 minutes and didn’t look in distress when leaving the pitch at the Kings Park.

"As far as I know it’s just a precaution," defence coach Scott Fardy said as the team build up to face the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday (3pm, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).

"I think they put them in the boots pretty quickly these days, just to [protect] ankles and feet and other things, especially when you are as big as Finlay is.

"I’d wear two boots myself to look after my own ankles. At the moment it’s just a precaution.

"It was a physical game, there was a lot of bangs so there’s a few guys coming through those. We’ll probably know a bit more tomorrow. We’re just waiting on a few guys to see how they pull up tomorrow."

While Connacht got the job done, thanks to JJ Hanrahan’s long-distance penalty with 13 minutes to play, against the winless Sharks, Fardy (above) admitted that it was far from a perfect performance.

"It’s a massive win, it’s a very difficult place to come after a long week of travel, distractions and lots of things," said the Australian.

"I thought the boys applied themselves really well at the start of the week.

"I don’t think we played our best rugby, we didn’t execute a number of things we wanted to. We defended bravely but not well. We came away with the victory on the back of really big moments from a number of players."

For the second week in a row, Connacht conceded a penalty