Wilkins explains Aki and Bealham absence: 'Never a good time to de-load'

It may have come as somewhat of a surprise that Connacht left Bundee Aki and Finlay Bealham out of the squad for last Saturday's Investec Champions Cup loss at Lyon.

Pete Wilkins’ side had picked up just one point from two games, a try-bonus in their round two defeat at Saracens.

That left them petering on the brink of elimination and the failure to return from the Matmud Stadium de Gerland without adding to their tally sees them sit rock bottom of Pool A.

Both Ireland internationals were fully fit and Connacht’s medical update on Monday clarified that the centre and prop will be back in the squad for Friday’s showdown against Pat Lam’s Bristol at the Sportsground after they "missed the game in Lyon through the IRFU player management programme".

Given what was on the line, it prompted former Ireland winger Luke Fitzgerald to call it "wrong, just plain wrong" and "madness, absolute insanity" on The Left Wing.

Coaches in the Irish system can be quite circumspect on exact details around the programme and it was refreshing to hear Wilkins explain the reasoning behind his decision.

"It’s certainly well thought out in advance," he told RTÉ Sport.

"The way it works is we have a really clear guide from the IRFU in terms of the amount of games they can play in any given block of the season.

"That’s stipulated ahead and we are totally aligned with that.

"It’s then, more or less, up to us how we use them. You can look at the fixture list, that goes into a large part of it but you also have to look at the amount of minutes they’ve played over the previous weeks.

"I suppose you are monitoring them live to see how the bodies are holding up, in some cases, how their minds are holding up.

"You don’t want to run them into the ground either, for us