Evans admits hit-and-run Quins were lucky

SO, the party is over, the Connacht dream of Parker Pen Challenge Cup glory ended, with it the concurrent dream that would have come as reward, a place in next year’s Heineken Cup.

Even Harlequins coach Mike Evans admitted it, however; the visitors were lucky, damned lucky, lost the game, lost perhaps a bit of pride, but courtesy of the nine point cushion they had earned in the first leg two weeks ago at the Stoop, they squeak through.

“We were looking down the barrel with twenty minutes to go, hadn’t really been in the game, hadn’t seen too much of the ball, a combination of Connacht’s very good ball retention and our inability to hold onto it for more than a few phases.

“We’re a very hit-and-run team anyway; we don’t grind sides down, we think we can score off first phase. As a result, we didn’t see an awful lot of the ball today, for sixty, sixty-five minutes. We got an early try but they pegged us back; then they got a number of quick scores.

“At that stage, we were either going to fight, or we were going to fold; I thought we played the last fifteen minutes pretty well. I thought Connacht tired; coming off a nine-point deficit, they had to throw the kitchen sink at us, and they did, with some enthusiasm. That was effective, but when players started to go down with about twenty minutes to go, you always know, that’s a tiring team.

Tired? Connacht coach Michael Bradley rejected that one. “There was a period alright where we lost concentration, ten or fifteen minutes before the end. It’s hard then to keep control of the game, when you don’t have possession.

“We probably lost the game in that period but in that same game, five minutes into injury time, we were pounding their line.”

Definitely not lack of fitness then. Not even the disruption caused by the late defection of regular full-back Matt Mostyn, nor even the injury suffered by David Hewitt, Mostyn’s replacement, in the 27th minute, nor yet the injury later suffered by Wayne Munn, Hewitt’s replacement, causing a rejig of the already rejigged back line. No, this one was down to lost opportunity, pure and simple, and Bradley wasn’t for excuses, especially not when, with ten minutes to go in regular time, Connacht were four points ahead on the aggregate, in the driving-seat.

“If we could have finished off some of our opportunities, we’d have won that game.”

Connacht did actually win the game, but we knew what he meant.

Regret then for Connacht, for the thousands who had packed the Sportsgrounds, the biggest crowd at a rugby game in the west since the All-Black visit of 1989. There was at least one happy Irishman in the vicinity however, Munster-bound Harlequins out-half Paul Burke. Thirteen points to his credit, several booming touch-finders in the wind-assisted first half, a game-deciding return for a man who knew well the vagaries of this combination dog-track/rugby-ground.

“I played here with Connacht U-20s, played for Munster, also played for an Ireland development team against the USA. It was different then, the new stand now, the huge crowd; they really made it an occasion, one that the Quins players won’t forget. Connacht threw everything at us, played really well, their pack were immense, really big forwards, they just pounded us and pounded us, and Eric (Elwood) played well.

“It was one of those games where we really had to dig deep, believe in ourselves.”

One positive out of the loss, however, the performances of all the Irish hopefuls on the Connacht team, second-row Damien Browne, number 8 John O’Sullivan, hooker Bernard Jackman, and centres Darren Yapp and Mark McHugh, most of all. “I wasn’t thinking of that, it never entered my mind out there,” said McHugh, rejecting such praise. “It was a great team effort, but courage and guts only get you so far sometimes”.