Connacht men so close to yet another famous upset in France

Connacht 22

By Rob Murphy

IF someone asked you where Connacht are at right now you’d probably say, there or thereabouts, fairly comfortable among the mid tier sides in Europe, not completely out of place in the Champions Cup, but well off the top ten sides in that competition. You would not say four points off two-time recent finalists Racing 92 on their home Astro turf. That’s the stuff of dreams.

And yet here we are, in the middle of two rounds of Champions Cup action with Connacht, the little upstarts, having almost done the unthinkable and beaten the big spending juggernaut from just outside Paris. ‘How in the name of God did they do that?’ you might ask.

Well, resilience, opportunism and madness are three words you could use here. In the end it didn’t prove to be enough for victory, but it almost was.

Let’s set the scene. The La Defence Arena is named after the area of Paris where the Racing 92 outfit play. It’s a phenomenal building, an indoor rugby arena with a 4g playing surface and a giant TV screen at one end for the supporters’ entertainment. Of course, there were no fans in there on Sunday afternoon and the eerie atmosphere probably played a part in the way the game played out.

At times it was like a training game. Racing were clearly in no mood for tribulations in this one, they wanted the quick and easy bonus point win that most pundits had predicted. Young prop Georges Henri Colombe got their first try, converted by temporary replacement scrum half Maximi Machenaud after a series of phases on the Connacht line following a strong lineout. The game was only six minutes old and they had control.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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