Great comeback keeps high flying Connacht men's momentum going

Connacht 17Dragons 13

Rob Murphy

PICTURE the scene. The 21-year-old Neath born out half Mathew Jarvis has just come into a game where his Connacht side are lifeless and trailing by ten points to a nondescript Dragons outfit which had so far managed to deflate a passionate home crowd and control the contest for almost an hour.

His task seems next to impossible. Connacht are incoherent, lack any sort of momentum and seem destined for defeat. Paul O’Donoghue enters the fray a minute later. The new half back pairing have 24 minutes to turn this game around, to get the home side attacking. The local crowd are restless, the home coach is frustrated, hope is in short supply.

Then the attack. Quick ball from a ruck on half way, a zipping pass to Jarvis who takes it, on the gain line, at full pace and releases in one movement to 21 year old Eoin Griffin. The Corinthian charges into the gap and passes outside to Tiernan O’Halloran, the pass initially seems a little early but these two young Galway lads know what they’re about, we shouldn’t doubt them.

O’Halloran is the 21-year-old Clifden lad who has burst onto the scene for Connacht this season having dipped his toe in last year and excelled for the Irish under 20s. Griffin made his splash last year and has made the 13 shirt his own. Local players, given every chance. That’s all in keeping with the new regime and is having a knock on effect down the line as we saw with the under 20s.  

Anyways, back to that try because, let’s face it, it was the pivotal, game-defining moment. When we left off a paragraph ago, O’Halloran had just received the ball and was a full pelt skirting the touchline. He made 15 metres drew the hit and returned possession to Griffin who had already switched on the after burners and scampered home from 30 metres in the corner.

Up steps Jarvis, a touchline conversion with the wind howling at him and the rain bucketing down, soaking very few of the 3,700 plus crowd thanks to the new, atmosphere lifting, covered terrace on the clubhouse side. Jarvis lost his place the previous weekend because of missed kicks but he strikes the ball consistently so it didn’t seem like an unfixable problem. He struck it well again and on this occasion it split the uprights. Cue elation.

The crowd were energised, the team were energised, as Portumna man John Muldoon put it after the game. “It took us the best part of an hour to realise that George (Naoupu) wasn’t around to carry the ball this week and we’d have to share his work load in that regard. Once we did that, it came together well and we were able to get clean ball to the backline.”

Muldoon was holding the man of the match award as he spoke, he started at blindside flanker and finished up at eight after Ray Ofisa went off injured. He had a stormer but the pack as a whole upped their game in a breathtaking final quarter that contrasted sharply with what had gone before. That converted try had it at 13-10 to the visitors.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.