THERE are, as the national team’s song has it, four proud provinces of Ireland. Yet until recently, in rugby terms at least, one has had altogether less reason for pride than the other three.
While Ulster, Munster and Leinster have all been European and PRO12 champions, Connacht have lagged well behind. This season, however, they have been pace-setters in the league, and made it through to the semi-finals with a second-place finish, having never previously come higher than seventh.
Pat Lam, the PRO12’s coach of the year, is one of the reasons for this marked improvement. Player of the year Bundee Aki is another. But it has been very much a squad effort too, as was shown by the fact that, of the PRO12 ‘Dream Team’ announced at last Sunday’s awards dinner in Dublin, seven of the 15 were from Connacht.
The club captain, John Muldoon, has been with Connacht all 13 years of his professional career. Now 33, the back-row forward is sure that his team have what it takes to go all the way and win the title - although he also insisted that Glasgow should be regarded as favourites when the teams meet in the semi-final in Galway a week today.
“We’ve had so many breakthrough moments this year,” said Muldoon, who led his team to a 14-7 win over the Warriors in the final game of the regular season last week. “Glasgow undoubtedly have been the top team over the last three years. It took them two years to win one. Sometimes people say you need to lose one to win one, but we’ll be hoping that it’s not the case for us.
“We’re in a great situation. Confidence is high, and now is as good a time as ever to win your first one.
“Throughout the year we’ve learned from our mistakes and been able to show dramatic improvements. We’ve been criticised a couple of times for not closing out games, and I thought we did very well to run down the last three or four minutes against Glasgow.”
Connacht now face the difficult task of making the leap from contenders to champions in one go, something that was beyond the Warriors, who lost a semi-final and a final before eventually winning the title last year. Many teams find it hard to deal with the psychological pressure of being in a big match for the first time, but Muldoon thinks his side may have already overcome that difficulty, having held on against their Scottish opponents last week to ensure themselves of a home semi-final.
“It’s good that [the pressure] has happened to us before the knockout stages,” he said. “I think that will massively stand to us. We’ve never been there before and we’ve absolutely nothing to lose now. We’ll go out and give it our all.
“We’ve taken over the mantle of the most mistakes this year. When you play high-risk rugby you’re always going to make mistakes.
“I don’t think we played that well on Saturday, and Glasgow will probably think the same. Hopefully the semi-final will be a better spectacle.”
Heavy rain put paid to the prospect of a really entertaining game last week, though Muldoon also thinks the sending-off of Glasgow’s Sila Puafisi had an adverse effect on his own team’s performance. “I think the red card was a huge moment in the game. In a way it took away from the way we were playing - I think we went into our shell. There was probably a bit of added pressure on us because everyone expected us to push on and win the game.
“Glasgow dug in really well and put us under a bit of pressure. We wasted a lot of opportunities. I think everyone will be looking for a dry day the next game - we’ll be looking to run the ball.
“I had a good 20-second conversation with [Warriors centre] Peter Horne running in at half-time, and we agreed that it was a shame it was pissing rain. Because we’ve probably been the two best attacking teams, and the weather took away from that.
“But I think the advantage is all in Glasgow’s favour. They know how to win competitions, they’ve got the experience, and they’ve got the players to do it.
“It’s up to us. It probably evens it out a little bit that we’re at home, but I think Glasgow are certainly favourites.”
In truth, the game is probably too close to call. The Warriors were only a score away from claiming the draw that would have given them a home semi-final against Ulster, and know that they can play considerably better than they did a week ago. But whatever happens, in a sense this has already been Connacht’s season, and Muldoon and his colleagues can take justifiable pride in what they have achieved.
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