Flying winger is pledging his future to Connacht

CONNACHT winger Tiernan O’Halloran believes Connacht can put behind the subdued performance of their Heineken Cup home defeat to Toulouse last month and, possibly, record their first ever competition victory over visiting Gloucester at the Sportsground on Saturday.

In many respects, the residue of that loss from Connacht’s historic Heineken Cup clash at the Sportsground has been lingering since then, reflected in their subsequent displays in the RaboDirect Pro 12 league, in which Connacht have since lost to the Ospreys and Treviso.

O’Halloran admits that – given the heady build-up to the Toulouse game – the performance and result were “massively disappointing”. Indeed, the Clifden native says it was the slow start Connacht made – something they hope to rectify this weekend – that ultimately cost them, although he concedes – albeit reluctantly – that the sense of history surrounding the occasion could have as easily jangled some players’ nerves.

“I suppose, there was such a build-up to the game for so long, ever since the summer when the draw came out and everyone was talking about Toulouse coming to Galway,” says the 20-year-old. “You could see it around the city, the excitement.

“So, maybe it was at the back of our minds, but we wouldn’t like to say that it was because we felt it wasn’t a factor. It could have come into our minds at the start [of the game]; maybe we were a bit in awe of the occasion. Like the atmosphere was unbelievable and stuff. Toulouse face that every week, where for us having 9,000 people out there was something new.”

Indeed, at long last, the West seem to be buying into – and seeing the potential of – Connacht rugby, with season ticket sales going from just under 1,000 last year to 3,000 this year. “That has helped a lot and with the new stand there, the Clan Terrace, the sound really echoes out onto the pitch.

“It really does give the players a boost when there is a big crowd there. The only thing now is, we have to start performing on the pitch or those attendances will start dropping again,” says the 20-year-old winger.

This weekend’s Heineken Cup tie against Gloucester certainly provides that opportunity, given that the English Premiership side have also struggled this season and are plummeting towards the bottom end of the table. Indeed, they have won only one of their last seven games in all competitions.

“I suppose, Gloucester would be the weakest of the three [other group rivals], so we would definitely be targeting them. Their form of late hasn’t been the best but, then again, the way our form is we also have to target every game at the moment because we need a win. Once we get that one win, we can build it from there – and more wins will start coming. It is just – at the moment – the confidence levels are a bit low so we need to get a few tries and a victory.”

For their part, Gloucester have the ignominy of having one of the highest counts of missed tackles in the Premiership and O’Halloran agrees that this, certainly, is an area Connacht can target. “We have done our analysis this morning already and we have been looking at them. Defensively, they wouldn’t be as strong as Toulouse and Harlequins and their form in the English Premiership isn’t the best either. They lost to Newcastle there at the weekend, and Newcastle are bottom.

For more, read this week's Galway CityTribune.