Aki's late try seals momentous Connacht win

Connacht 18

THE final scrum of a pulsating game at Thomond Park was quite probably excruciating to watch for the travelling Connacht support. On the second attempt, it was securely locked down by two warriors, more on them anon, and the ball was popped back to Craig Ronaldson who dispatched it to touch to spark scenes of unimaginable joy for West of Ireland rugby fans everywhere in the world.

Thankfully, on the day that was in it, hundreds of those Connacht supporters were in Limerick and their singing, chanting and roaring made this ground breaking result all the more memorable and defiant.

As Munster fans hit for the exits, the hallowed turf of Limerick’s famous rugby ground belonged to a group of (mostly) young rugby players with ambition that is proving harder and harder to hide and their success starved supporters who are daring to dream.

The two warriors locking down that scrum were Ronan Loughney and Finlay Bealham. Both unheralded, the former a fully capped international from 2004, playing some of the best rugby of his career at 34, the latter an academy graduate with bags of potential and a list of steady performances in the scrum.

The replacement props. As good as place as any to start when you reflect on a win that you couldn’t say was unexpected, but you could certainly say felt seismic. If the victory away to Toulouse was a bolt from the blue and a scarcely believable triumph at the time, this was a seismic statement, a result that did seem possible beforehand and seemed even likely for long periods during the game yet by the end, you still had to pinch yourself.

Pat Lam will tell you over and over again that history is important, that he loves history, that he respects history but that it has no bearing on what his players do on the field. He repeated this mantra afterwards but even allowing for all that, he could not ignore that reaction at full time.

Be it fans, players or the national media in the post game press conference, no one was about to play this achievement down, everyone wanted a piece of the story. Connacht teams are usually good for big performances and the odd headline, but they do all that in their own time and on their own patch. Disrupting the status quo elsewhere on this island is another scenario entirely.

That stat that we discussed last week has been put to bed, 37 games away from home against Irish provinces without a win. The run of 13 years was really hanging over this squad. Lam’s men were making progress but that marker seemed to be a cloud that could no longer be ignored.

Full match report in this week's Connacht Tribune.