Heroic Connacht come so close to causing massive Cup upset

Harlequins 25Connacht 17

Rob Murphy

HAIR raising is an apt phrase. Connacht burst out of the blocks in their first ever Heineken Cup encounter at the Stoop on Friday night and very nearly caused the mother and father of all upsets against England’s best. In the process, they restored faith and belief among the nay sayers and lit a fire in the hearts of the believers.

If a game in any sport could exist in a vacuum (and we know none can) then this one would tell a tale of an away team that had the momentum late in the second half and didn’t push on. It would point to a 10-5 forced turnover count in favour of the home side and the concession of seven kickable penalties by the visitors which were punished by Europe’s most potent kicker.

However, there is a truck load of context needed to understand the sense satisfaction and pride among Connacht supporters at the full time whistle. Taken at face value, it might make little sense to the uninitiated but delve a little deeper and you see the significance of the moment and scale of the challenge that faced Connacht.

This was no glorious failure, simply because all the evidence shows us that the better team won. Harlequins were lethal at the breakdown, they had 15 first half off loads to Connacht’s none. They forced the visitors into making 93 fearless tackles as against 48 in the first half and even in a second half where they were on the back foot, they created more try scoring opportunities.

While Connacht were rock solid at lineout time, dominated the third quarter in terms of possession and territory and more than held their own at scrum time, the concession of key penalties proved vital. The penalty count was 10-6 in favour of Quins and they conceded just two kickable ones, seven of Connacht’s ten were within range.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.