Muldoon: We’ve never been stronger

HEINEKEN CUP POOL 3:

Muldoon is now in his 11th season with the province, having played 208 games, and reckons they are going to become a force to be reckoned with because they are developing their own talent. He paid tribute to the work of academy manager Nigel Carolan and his team of coaches who have brought through a conveyor belt of underage talent which helped them start against Leinster with an all-Irish back line — four of them born in Connacht — and an all-Galway back row.

“It’s probably the one thing we’ve been missing over the years compared to the other provinces. We need the majority of our players to be from Connacht, then you dress it up with the Irish-born players and then you bring in the likes of Dan Parks, Nathan White and Craig Clarke and then you’ve got a good side.

“Unfortunately over the years we’ve probably had to bring in lads and then dress it up with the Connacht lads, but it’s starting to change and that’s been the big focus in Connacht rugby over the past few years,” said the 31-year old.

He will make his 50th European appearance for Connacht tomorrow against Zebre, the first 38 of them in the Challenge Cup, a competition he would love to play in again next April if they can pull off a couple of good results in the next week or so and go into the quarter-finals later in the season.

“The Heineken Cup is a great competition. Obviously the focus for us is to come out on Saturday and beat Zebre. There’s not much point in watching what happens between Toulouse and Saracens.”

That said, if Toulouse beat Saracens, it’s all on when it comes to the Allianz Park next week, but first and foremost we’ve got to beat Zebre.

“The Amlin has had a lot of great days and I’ve been involved in a lot of great days as well so there’s a lot to play for over the next weeks. It would be great to remain in Europe whatever way possible. Obviously we want to stay in the Heineken Cup, obviously if that’s not possible there’s the route of the Amlin. There are some quality teams still in it but I think we’d be quietly confident if we got into the quarter-finals of it. It has been a great competition in the past.”

Connacht will go into tomorrow’s game at the Sportsground as clear favourites, having defeated Zebre twice already this season, and Muldoon believes they have to deliver on expectation.

“As a professional team you have to take that on the head. We, of all people, know that being favourites doesn’t mean anything. One to 200 comes into your head when you think of that and that match in Toulouse. A few punters thought we were a good bet that day. We know all about being underdogs. Zebre had a great win at the weekend against Treviso and they were probably unlucky not to beat them the previous week.

“So there is no danger that we are going to underestimate them, definitely not. These lads we have coming through want to win, but we know it must be earned,” added Muldoon.