Yet another one gets away from Connacht against bogey rivals

Connacht 16Munster 20

Rob Murphy at the Sportsground

MUNSTER once again. The aura that surrounds that red jersey carries weight and stature in every European outpost and Connacht is no different.

For 55 minutes, however, the Sportsground faithful dared to believe that a new script was about to be written. At that point, Connacht had a scrum in the Munster 22, most of the 7,022 crowd sensed a pivotal score in the offing and held their breath.

Munster’s stature all of a sudden seemed irrelevant a the men in red looked disjointed and ruffled. Time to pounce. Lines were fluffed, however, simple as that.

Connacht took a scrum from a penalty when other options may have been better but got the ball back anyway only to cough up a second turnover. It was 18th hole at a major type stuff, a two score lead at that juncture could have killed the tie. Munster visibly grew a couple of inches in the face of their opponent’s frailties.

It was by no means an overall failure from a Connacht side that toiled and battled and created some hair-raising moments for a home crowd that were both supportive and appreciative of the challenge.

The loyalty and patience of this rapidly growing home following is one of the hallmarks of this season and must give the powers-that-be great hope for the future. They’re here to stay and will suffer these evenings in the hope of better days ahead.

Before recounting events in more detail, let’s look at one statistic that might explain why Connacht looked more potent in attack, especially in the first-half. Henry Fa’afili is by no means a key man in many people’s eyes but consider this – in his 12 starts at inside centre this season, he has been involved in all six games where Connacht didn’t lose, five wins, one draw and six defeats is his record.

It makes you think. In his 12 starts, the hard running Samoan with a fairly high level of handling skills, has seen his side accumulate 22 of their 25 Rabo Direct league points not to mention their sole and hugely uplifting Heineken Cup triumph, and it’s not as if Dave McSharry has stood out as a problem in the other games either. 

It may well be down quite simply to his ability to offload in the tackle. Throughout the first-half on Saturday, Connacht looked more potent in attack than at points earlier in the season. Fa’afili’s back-door pass to Ethienne Reynecke almost led to a try and minutes later, a super Connacht maul had secured that first score gtom their hooker with Mick O’Driscoll in the bin.

The gap was four at half-time 10-6. Miah Nikora’s boot has accounted for the rest of Connacht’s scores, while former College Road favourite Ian Keatley had kicked two penalties for Munster. A late first-half surge should have yielded a second try for the home side but a mix up between Frank Murphy and Gavin Duffy at the base proved costly.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.