Muldoon and his team-mates doing Connacht proud

Date Published: 14-Apr-2010

THIS is the best we have ever seen from Connacht in the professional era. The province continues to blaze a trail in 2010 as confirmed by Saturday’s magnificent Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final victory over Bourgoin at the Sportsgrounds. In front of almost 4,000 spectators, John Muldoon and company covered themselves in glory.

It’s hard to credit this is largely the same Connacht team which was embarrassingly routed by Edinburgh in the Magners League last September, such has been the near-startling rate of progress over the past couple of months, in particular.The men in green are playing with unprecedented levels of self-belief as they continue to pursue previously elusive qualification for the Heineken Cup on two fronts.

Connacht have been in Challenge Cup semi-finals before, but never on the back of such a run of consistent results. Their grandstand win over Bourgoin has also earned them the considerable bonus of a home semi-final against another French team, Toulon, on May 1, when one anticipates that the Sportsground will be packed to the rafters.

Amid some initial speculation that Connacht might move that game to a bigger ground in order to maximise the fixture’s crowd-pulling potential, the local branch have wisely opted to stage the match in the spiritual home of rugby in the province. It will, of course, cost money to increase the Sportsground’s capacity and the carpenters will be busy over the next couple of weeks, but it’s the proper thing to do.Connacht, the only unbeaten team in Europe this season, secured their passport to the semi-finals the hard way.

Trailing by 20-14 after Benjamin Boyet converted John Senio’s 58th minute try, the hosts were in big trouble, but the decision to introduce Miah Nikora at out half proved the catalyst for a stirring last quarter revival. He nailed two penalties to bring the teams level before the Kiwi kept his nerve from a drop goal attempt less than three minutes from the end.

This win adds to the team’s growing reputation as Connacht stretched their unbeaten run at the Sportsground to eight games. Facing the elements in the opening-half, they produced an extremely high-intensity and disciplined display, highlighted by Trojan work in the pack from Muldoon, Johnny O’Connor, Michael Swift and the exceptional George Naoupu at the base of the scrum.

It was the long serving Swift, the province’s most capped player, who scored his team’s opening try and with Muldoon adding a second, they found themselves ahead by 14-10 at the break. They hadn’t allowed Bourgoin to settle, but any thoughts that the French would have the stomach to battle back against the wind on the resumption were soon banished. They upped the tempo and when establishing the six points lead, it appeared that the match had turned irrevocably in their favour, but Connacht no longer drop the heads when in trouble and they patiently set about retrieving the deficit.

They may have just got there in the end, but Connacht were deserving winners. There is an incredible spirit and will-to-win in the camp at present, while the squad’s tactical nous continues to improve as well. There is nothing to beat winning and the overall confidence in the set up is plain to see. And the big fixtures keep on coming as they take on Munster in the Magners League at the Sportsground on Sunday evening.