Lesson learned but Connacht have new 'belief' - Pete Wilkins

Pete Wilkins reckons Connacht are in a much better place than last season even if they find themselves lower down in the table.

The Westerners topped the standings after three rounds last season, winning three from three, including a victory over Saturday opponents Ulster.

This year they have taken two bonus points from a narrow loss to Munster and impressed in wins over Sharks and Scarlets, leaving them on 11 points.

Things began to unravel in game four of the 2023/24 season when they fell to a 25-22 loss in Edinburgh, thanks to a Ben Healy dropgoal with the last kick of the match, and then lost three of the next four, ultimately finishing in 11th and outside the play-off places.

"There's certainly a synchronicity that we need to be aware of," Wilkins told RTÉ Sport.

"For me it’s the bigger learning of what the difference has been for us across the first three games of the season, compared to us across the majority of last season.

"The similarity is we’ve got off to a decent start, but I think we won’t draw on the one game as much.

"It’s about what are we seeing rugby-wise, what are we seeing spirit-wise and identity-wise and what has brought us these points in rounds one, two and three.

"Last season is there as a tiny reminder that we were pretty dissatisfied with a few of our performances and not that long ago that we got off to a decent start and then faded out as the season went so feet are firmly on the ground here."

Connacht needed a late Cathal Forde penalty to edge the Scarlets in a stop-start affair in Llanelli last Friday night, while Ulster are off the back of two heavy defeats in South Africa.

Wilkins said he wouldn’t read much into last Saturday’s 47-21 loss to Bulls.

"We’ve got belief coming into this game, we’ve got