A day 20 years in the making
As the gas cannons spewed their flames 30 foot into the air at strategic points around a packed Sportsground on Saturday evening, it was difficult not to reflect that it was far from this we were reared.
Brouhaha and spectacle, let alone sell-out crowds, are not something that feature prominently in the history of Connacht rugby, nor indeed is a team that could play with alacrity and poise . . . yet here we were, the centre of attention live on three TV networks.
The world has truly spun on its axis. Connacht luxuriating in success and, not alone that, the talk of the nation and beyond for their verve and sense of adventure.
Back-to-back victories over defending champions Glasgow is the ultimate testimony as to how far Connacht have travelled in this remarkable season and it requires just one more performance of merit in Saturday’s final against seven-times finalists Leinster in Edinburgh to prove that with proper application, preparation and conviction, nothing is unattainable in sport.
For those of us who have followed Connacht rugby from long before the arrival of professionalism in the late 1990s, the most remarkable aspect is not the sudden competitiveness of the team, rather the fact that Sportsground, once the bleakest venue on the circuit, is now vying with the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast as the most atmospheric.
It’s become something of a cauldron over the past couple of seasons and a major contributory factor in the team’s impressive home record, as well as ensuring Connacht get a more equitable deal from referees than has so often been the case in the past.
Just cast your minds back to a previous Connacht team that enjoyed a modicum of success, the Warren Gatland-coached side from the start of the professional era which possibly achieved the two best results ever by the province when defeating a star-studded Northampton (featuring current Glasgow coach Gregor Townsend, incidentally) both home and away as they won five of their six matches in the European Challenge Cup to top their pool. In that 1997-98 campaign, they also became the first Irish province to win in France when defeating Bordeaux.
But it scarcely registered with the sporting public in Galway and for the next decade, home crowds, regardless of the quality of the visiting team, were invariably counted in their hundreds. Home games conferred no particular advantage. It was only in the Eric Elwood era with his heart-on-sleeve passion that the people of the city and county began to relate to the team in greater numbers.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.