Duffy: we’re ready to show Toulon best of the west

AT A time when rugby is growing in Connacht at a rate of knots, new clubs springing up in the most unlikely of places, new schools taking part – and winning – in the old cup competitions, does it make a whit of sense anymore to treat Connacht like a second-class citizen, to deny them equal funding with the other three provinces?

This year, on the field, Connacht have given us a glimpse of what things would be like if they were given a fair crack of the whip. On their current budget, they simply can’t afford the strength in depth of the likes of Munster and Leinster, so their league form – a test of stamina – suffers accordingly, which explains their current lowly position; with some astute recruiting at home and abroad, however, they can field one hell of a competitive cup-type team. Full-back for Connacht is Gavin Duffy, a Ballina boy, and with the IRFU still looking west with a very jaundiced eye, he’s more conscious than most of the significance of this game.

“Even in the time I left to go to Harlequins (2003-06) and now, there’s been a huge difference, massive growth. Young kids wearing Connacht jerseys, Connacht hoodies, clubs in places like Barna, Oughterard, the Gaeltacht – there are more and more kids looking to play the game. The school out in Oranmore have won the last three Junior Cups, more and more new schools and new clubs prospering every year.

“The senior team is the flagship, and we’re very aware that if we prosper, so will rugby in the province, just as has happened in Munster and Leinster in the last few years – that really opens your eyes to the possibilities, and you want that for your own province. We’re very mindful of the impact the team has. We’ve been asked a lot of questions over the last two years as a squad, but I think we’ve answered those questions; we want to be a team all of Connacht can be proud of. Sure enough, there are lads who will go to see Munster and Leinster in the Heineken Cup, but ultimately we want those guys to have their own big days following Connacht.”

Added Duffy: “There’s an expression ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ – we want that, we welcome everyone on board, that’s what sport is about. We’ve had some bad days where we had to look hard and long at ourselves after bad defeats, but we’ve always been working hard, looking for consistency. You enjoy these good days when they come, they give you a taste for more. We’re playing well, scoring good tries, creating a hell of a lot of opportunities, and that’s something we’ve been doing right throughout the season. Games we’ve lost, the coaches have come to us afterwards and said, ‘Lads, ye created 18 chances, they created five, the difference was they converted their five.’

“We’ve been leaving a lot of chances behind us but we’ve had that positive to draw on, the fact that we are playing good rugby. It was a question of converting those chances, getting to a high level of consistency, and when that happened, we knew we’d be a hard team to beat.”

What has changed for Connacht this year, reckons Gavin, is the fact that they have a more settled side. “We haven’t had a big turnover of players, guys like Seán Cronin, Fionn Carr, Ian Keatley, Jamie Hagan, who weren’t getting a lot of rugby elsewhere – they have come to Connacht and stayed. Last year, with good home wins over Munster and Leinster, people saw the potential, they saw what we could achieve. It comes from experience, it comes from having the confidence to back yourself every week, it comes from getting the chance to play, and the lads are getting those chances. We can see that this year, the squad has developed.”

Connacht in the Heineken Cup? “Yeah, without a doubt – if we can’t see it happening, it’s not going to happen. You have to have a belief, you have to foresee these things. Of course I see it happening, and if not this season, we’ll work harder, make it happen next year.”

Are you listening, Lansdowne Road?