Connacht legend John Muldoon keen to write another underdog story with Bristol

It's the English club's first European final - just days after missing out on a place in the Premiership final after defeat to Wasps

Fri, 16 Oct, 2020 - 06:00

Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh

John Muldoon says Bristol Bears have already achieved all they hoped for this season - but the Connacht legend insists he's greedy for more.

And that means lifting a trophy tonight, at the Stade Maurice-David, where the Bears have Toulon standing between them and a first ever European trophy.

It's the club's first European final, and days after missing out on a place in the Premiership final after defeat to Wasps, Muldoon wants to see his boys do a Connacht by shooting down the European giants in style.

"We wanted to get top six in the league and our goal was to get to a final in Europe – we managed to get top four in the league and now we're in a final," said Muldoon, the Bears' forwards coach.

"There's no point getting there if you don't win them, so while we've ticked some boxes, we want to tick another."

In some ways, Bristol's road to a major final has echoes of Connacht's in 2016. Under Pat Lam, the Bears coach, Connacht - skippered by Muldoon - made it to the final of the PRO12 championship, where they stunned Leinster to lift their first senior trophy. That final came three seasons into Lam's reign - as does this year's final for the Bears - but there's a prop-sized elephant in the room when you begin to examine the contrast between the sides.

Connacht were the whipping boys of Irish rugby when Lam arrived, the poor relations long seen as merely a 'development' team for the other provinces. Lam changed those fortunes without spending one - but the same can't be said with Bristol.

Two years ago Charles Piutau was signed from Ulster on a huge salary, with fellow All Black John Afoa joining soon after. Nathan Hughes, Kyle Sinckler and Semi Radradra have added even zeroes to the club's wage bill in the months since.

“We have more people here from different backgrounds – including 'superstars' if you want to deem them that,” admitted Muldoon.

“Money is something people will always talk about, but you can look at it two ways – you can look at Semi and Charles and think 'they've done this and that', but without the other players around them, you don't get what you want out of them.

You need young lads coming through the academy, it's easy to forget the young players who have been the cornerstone of the club for the last two or three years, because of the focus on those big names.

“It's like Bundee Aki at Connacht, you still need a lineout and a scrum...it's not all about those big dogs. But they do help."

With Piutau missing tonight through injury, and Bristol coming off an error-strewn Premiership semi-final defeat to Wasps last Saturday, the players will need to quickly rediscover their self-belief to topple the French giants.

That's not usually something lacking under a Pat Lam team - as Muldoon well knows.

"The top-level comes when you have built culture, belief and confidence," he explained. "We've seen that grow in the last 18 months, just as we did in Galway. The final piece is to play with complete belief and have no fear."