Connacht lift the siege with greatest win ever

European club rugby was shaken to its foundations at the Stade Ernest Wallon in southern France on Sunday afternoon. A team on a demoralising eight-match losing run and rated 25/1 outsiders somehow defied their complete no-hoper status to pull off the biggest shock in the history of the Heineken Cup.

Nobody saw this sensational Connacht win coming – and how could they? Amid widespread pre-match fears of a trouncing at the hands of the French aristocrats, Pat Lam’s squad turned logic on its head and tore the formbook to shreds in conjuring up the greatest single triumph in the province’s history as well as blowing Pool Three of the Heineken Cup wide open.

Frankly, it almost beggars belief what Connacht achieved in lowering the colours of the four-time competition winners and there was no fluke behind their 16-14 victory either. Sure, Connacht fronted up to Toulouse after their shameful late collapse against Edinburgh at Murrayfield the previous weekend, but there was more than heart behind this stunning result which is arguably the sporting upset of the year.

Much better organised defensively, playing heads up rugby and staying composed in moments of crisis, Connacht managed to bookend a tremendous Heineken Cup clean sweep for the Irish provinces. Naturally, the players were fired up in the wake of the 30 points Edinburgh mauling and this naked desire to salvage individual and squad reputations appeared to catch a possibly complacent Toulouse outfit by surprise.

There is no point trying to reconcile the Connacht team which conceded three late tries to Edinburgh to the one which went out and inflicted the first home Heineken Cup defeat on Toulouse in five years in the space of little more than a week. It just doesn’t stack up, but none of this will perturb the Connacht camp ahead of the return leg at the Sportsground on Saturday evening.

The Westerners have produced heroic once off wins from nowhere before, not least against Harlequins in their debut season in the Heineken Cup, but claiming the scalps of Toulouse is a different level altogether, especially on French soil. Leinster, Ulster and Munster all produced great performances in big wins over the weekend, but it’s Connacht who are dominating the rugby headlines after an achievement which any of their provincial rivals would have been rightly proud of.

Of course, the big challenge now for Craig Clarke and company is to reproduce last Sunday’s intensity levels and on-field organisation for the return leg. They may have diced with offside on a number of occasions, but Connacht’s intent was reflected by the manner in which they consistently swarmed-tackled the Toulouse player in possession. There was no needless concession of space or territory as the visitors pushed up hard and nine times out of ten stopped the opposition runners in their tracks.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.