At least Connacht are used to uphill battles
Connacht are on the verge of the biggest game in their history, and yet, once again, they’re operating in the shadow of their illustrious neighbours.
That is the way it has always been for rugby in the west of Ireland and on the eve of a fascinating encounter against the new power brokers of European rugby, at least in terms of financial clout, Connacht’s Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final against Toulon is forced to compete with not one but two Heineken Cup semi-finals featuring the glamour boys of Irish rugby, Munster and Leinster.
Seriously, when will these guys get a break?
Connacht has always been pitched in the role of bridesmaid, even in the corridors of power in the IRFU, where they have struggled for representation. This season, despite meagre resources, they have battled away and punched well above their weight, finally delivering a level of consistency in performance that has eluded them so often in the past.
Despite that magnificent victory over Leinster last Wednesday, it was a disappointing week overall for Connacht when their lack of resources come home to bite them in Llanelli.
With a squad of just 28 full-time professional players, having to perform three times in a week is a big ask, especially at this stage of the season, when the medical room is more populated than the training paddock.
Their 58-10 hammering by the Scarlets, allied to Ulster’s magnificent 37-25 win over Edinburgh, has robbed them of the opportunity of qualifying for the Heineken Cup through the Magners League route.
While the glass half-empty brigade will point out that Connacht still occupy an all too familiar berth at the foot of the Magners League table, that does a disservice to what they are creating out west. If judged primarily on their role as a development province, then they have been spectacularly successful in the manner that Michael Bradley, Eric Elwood and Dan McFarland have furthered the academy products from Munster and Leinster who, because of competition from within, were denied the necessary game-time in their own province to progress to the next level.
On that basis, good young players like Ian Keatley, try-scoring sensation Fionn Carr, Sean Cronin and Jamie Hagan backed themselves and decamped to Galway. All four have been rewarded, in the case of Keatley and Cronin with full international caps, while Connacht will almost certainly be a victim of their own success sooner rather than later with winger Carr to be repatriated elsewhere.
In addition, the inclusion of young homegrown talent to recent matchday squads – Ireland U20 internationals, Tiernan O’Halloran and Eoin Griffin, along with Andrew Browne and David Nolan – offers further evidence they are well capable of producing a couple of worthy contenders of their own for further honours.
If Connacht accept their development role, then it is an inevitable by-product that players either groomed by themselves or those attending the equivalent of finishing school in Galway will eventually move on. If they qualify for the Heineken Cup for the first time next season – either by winning the Amlin Challenge Cup or via Munster or Leinster winning the Heineken Cup, then they will look for more from the governing body. Perhaps the strategic review currently being undertaken by the IRFU could not have been better timed, but the purse-strings are being prudently managed by Dublin at present. Prior to the findings of that exercise, Connacht must take matters in their own hands on the field of play.
However, the results of last weekend are a major setback. Ulster’s bonus-point win in Murrayfield was every bit as painful to Connacht as their own performance in south Wales. In addition Toulon’s victory over Brive in the French Championship means that Jonny Wilkinson’s side have now qualified for a home semi-final in that competition and don’t have to play in the qualifiers the week after the Connacht game. Consequently they are likely to travel at very close to full strength. Connacht have a mountain to climb, but then again, has it ever been any different?
To put their challenge in context, Toulon currently lie second in the French championship – Leinster’s opponents Toulouse are fourth while Biarritz are seventh.
On the basis of their European heroics when they contributed to a massive weekend for Irish rugby with all three provinces winning their respective European quarter-finals, even the national Sunday newspapers began to take notice, all with features focusing on the Connacht story.
On the same day as their blanket press exposure, Munster were coming to town and had the audacity to select three debutants in a callow-looking backline due to a crippling injury list. Surely this was the day when Munster would be put to the sword and thought a lesson?
Unfortunately, as their inspirational captain John Muldoon aptly described it, they were “caught like rabbits in the headlights”. With a Munster team based around development and academy players, 14 of the Connacht side that accounted for Bourgoin only a week earlier froze. Understandably Bradley and his management team were crestfallen. Even in the bad old days, the one thing that Connacht had in abundance was character. If ever that was in evidence it was the manner in which despite a growing injury list, they dispatched a Leinster side that had clearly targeted last Wednesday’s fixture as the one that would deliver a guaranteed home Magners League semi-final. In all, 15 of their Heineken Cup matchday squad appeared at some stage, including their entire first-choice pack while Brian O’Driscoll also played the full 80 minutes.
Under those circumstances, to win in the manner they did, producing three spectacular tries, underlines how far Bradley has brought this side in recent months. All of a sudden, the loss to Munster was a distant memory and once again the players had only positive thoughts to focus on. Sadly, the cumulative Magners League results last Sunday will have come as a shattering blow on the eve of welcoming a side that are sure to have a significant role to play in the Heineken Cup from next season onwards. With marquee names such as Wilkinson, Felipe Contepomi, JM Fernandez Lobbe, Sonny Bill Williams, Pierre Mignoni and Joe van Niekerk coming to town, Connacht will again have their backs to the wall. That at least should offer a familiar starting point.
