Peter Jackson: Connacht fall foul of old family curse

Nobody knows what the Irish ever did to upset the Wisniewski family but whatever it was, they’re still at it — still putting the boot into the Greenshirts after all these years.

Whatever the sport and wherever Ireland’s finest come from, whenever there’s a Wisniewski standing between them and a semi-final it only ever ends one way. Soccer or rugby, north or south, World Cups or European Challenge Cups, Irish teams make the same heart-breaking exit when the other side contains a goal-scoring Wisniewski.

Connacht will find no consolation in the strange fact that what befell them at the Stade des Alpes on Saturday night had happened before. As the late Yogi Berra, almost as famous for his mangled English as for his baseball, would have said: “It was déjà vu all over again.”