Duffy hails ‘special’ breed

Within minutes of this season’s Heineken Cup draw, Harlequins’ director of rugby Conor O’Shea was on the phone to his Connacht counterpart and former Irish team-mate Eric Elwood claiming this third successive meeting in Europe had a touch of inevitability about it.

This is their ninth European clash, but despite the familiarity between both coaches and teams, this evening’s European date is expected to have a little more bite after Connacht’s 9-8 victory over the English giants in the final pool fixture last season. That was Connacht’s only victory in their eight competitive European meetings since the 2003-2004 Challenge Cup semi-final which the Londoners won home and away before overcoming Stade Francais in the final.

Current Connacht captain Gavin Duffy featured in that Quins’ victory — indeed the 31-years-old has played in six meetings between the two clubs, missing two through injury. Today Duffy is again watching from the sidelines — a week shy of recovering from a hamstring injury against Glasgow a month ago.