Heineken Cup history at the Sportsground
Date Published: {J}
Dara Bradley
Take note of the date and remember it: Friday, January 20, 2012, the day Connacht Rugby came of age in the professional era.
Connacht have had huge defining wins before but beating Harlequins to clinch their first ever Heineken Cup victory in their debut season in the prestigious competition must rank alongside, possibly higher than, the best results the province has ever produced.
A truly heroic effort that produced a truly historic result, which will be savoured for many years to come out West no matter what Connacht go on to achieve in the years ahead. We’ve yet to meet a Munster supporter that was alive in 1
978 who wasn’t at the famous win over the All-Blacks, whether they were actually there or not, and we suspect that the official attendance of 5,420 at College Road on Friday will swell by many multiples of that as well, as the 9-8 triumph against the English Premiership leaders goes down in Connacht folklore.
In fairness, when referee Nigel Owen’s last whistle sounded at the Sportsground, it certainly felt like there was many more Connacht die-hards packed into the ground when the roar at the finish nearly blew the roof off the Clan Terrace. Many grown men were on the verge of tears: A mixture of relief and joy. The pitch invasion was a sight to behold, too.
As man of the match John Muldoon (another bit of history as the Portumna man became the first player representing Connacht to be awarded a man-of-the-match accolade in the Heineken Cup) remarked afterwards, fans and players celebrated as if Connacht had won the final.
“It feels like we’ve won the Heineken Cup in there (dressing room). It’s been a long 14 losses, so we’ll bloody take that one. We said we wanted to take a scalp and this was our last chance so we’re happy . . . We wanted to give our fans something to shout about on the last day, and thankfully we’re there. The pack was phenomenal tonight and I’ll take this (MOM award) as part of the pack, not as an individual,” said Muldoon.
For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.