The forgotten man of Irish rugby, Mack Hansen, has returned - news that will come as a major boost to Connacht and also to Ireland ahead of the Autumn series.
The Australian-born flier is now back in full training after missing all of the second half of last season with a shoulder injury. The 26-year-old was absent for Ireland's Six Nations campaign and the winning series away to South Africa but now can add his considerable try-scoring ability to both provincial and national set-ups.
"Mack is in full training, he has done a full pre-season with us," head coach Pete Wilkins confirmed last week.
However, he told RTE that fellow Ireland internationals Bundee Aki and Finlay Bealham are not expected to see any action until the start of October after being part of the Ireland summer tour to South Africa.
"They are just back, they have done a conditioning week," added Wilkins, whose side finished outside the play-off places last season and missed out on Champions Cup qualification.
"They had a delayed summer break after their return from the South Africa tour. They are into some running and fitness, and Finlay will start to integrate into rugby at the back end of this week, Bundee from the start of next week.
"Most of those guys who had a large chunk of minutes over the summer, you probably won’t see them until URC round three-ish.
"But the important thing is they are back, they are well, they are refreshed, and as I said, they will get up to speed on the rugby front pretty quickly.”
The Westerners also welcomed back Josh Murphy, the back row who took a year out to finish his studies, while new signing Josh Ioane, the former Highlanders and Chiefs out-half, arrived two weeks ago.
"Josh Murphy, we know him really well, but it is like having a brand new signing, seeing him after a year away," added the 44-year-old of the former Leinster forward.
"He is high quality. I think his CV speaks for itself in terms of the amount of quality rugby he has played. We missed him last year, we missed what he brought to us in terms of the abrasiveness and in terms of the collective mindset.
"I am really delighted he is back. He obviously relished his year away with his doctoring, but at the same time, it has probably made him realize how lucky everyone is to have a career as a rugby player and to really make the most of that for as long as you possibly can.
"Josh Ioane has been with us for two weeks now. He is ramping nicely.
"There was a fair bit of conditioning work we had to get into him, obviously to get up to speed rugby-wise.
"But he is a really good guy. Again, he is a class operator, you can see that he has played at the very highest level of the southern hemisphere.
"He picked up our game and the nuances of it really quickly, which shows that he has got that experience of dropping in and out of representative programmes.
"He has got a high level of rugby intellect, I believe. And it’s going to be fascinating to see him and Jack [Carty] battle it out for the number 10 jersey.
"Obviously Sean Naughton is following closely behind after another really good Ireland U20s campaign, and JJ [Hanrahan] due back in the new year. So, we are lucky to have Josh, he is a good guy and he is settling well."
