Connacht must seize the day for it may not happen again

IN 131 years of competition, Connacht have never won anything; haven’t really come close to capturing silverware. Even in the old Inter-pro era of three games per season, the Westerners were generally out of their depth, making up numbers. The game trundled along in the province, rarely threatening to break free from the shackles of subservience.

Of course that didn’t stop Connacht from producing players of international class like Mick Molloy, Johnny Dooley, Ciaran Fitzgerald, Ray McLaughlin, John O’Driscoll, Noel Mannion and Eric Elwood over the years, but they never had enough of them at the same time to carry the fight to Ulster, Leinster and Munster on a consistent basis. There was the odd milestone win, but basically Connacht were perceived as also rans.

Initially, when the sport turned professional in the mid-nineties, the province’s lot remained largely unchanged. There were more games, but Connacht continued to struggle in terms of results. Their poverty on the field and, in financial terms, off it was no longer going unnoticed by the money bods in the IRFU and plans were drawn up to disband the province as a professional entity.

That proposed move sparked outrage among the rugby fraternity in the West of Ireland, leading to over a thousand of them marching on the offices of the IRFU in Dublin in January of 2003. The protest achieved its aim and sport’s governing body backed off. For years afterwards, Connacht remained the poor relation of the game in Ireland with insufficient funding and player resources, but local pride and a sense of belonging never diminished.

Gradually, Connacht began to stir as a more competitive force. Under Eric Elwood, they made genuine progress and occasional headlines – notably, that barnstorming triumph over Toulouse in the then Heineken Cup in December of 2013 – even if the win to loss ratio remained disappointing. His successor as Head Coach, Pat Lam, threw himself enthusiastically into the role; bringing fresh ideas and impetus to the Sportsground. He recruited beyond Connacht’s normal range and he led the squad to their highest ever placing of seventh in last season’s Guinness Pro12.

Still, at the start of this year’s campaign, nobody envisaged Connacht going where they are now. Unlucky not to reach the Challenge Cup semi-finals, they have been a breath of fresh air in the league, winning a remarkable 15 of their 22 matches, completing their first ever double over Munster, and only pipped at the top of the table by Leinster. The men in green have also been playing some breathtaking rugby along the way, earning rave reviews for their sense of adventure and superbly-honed offloading game.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.