By Rob Murphy at the RDSLeinster 16 - Connacht 13
The bemused gasps echoed throughout the new stand at the RDS when the upstarts from the west had the audacity to shun three points and kick to the corner minutes after half time. Connacht were leading 13-9 at that point and had just received a kickable penalty in the 22, the home support had sat back in their seats fully expecting a kick and were taken aback.
That moment of audible bewilderment is a perfect snapshot of how the rest of the country see Connacht rugby and it might be a marker we refer back to later in the year. Pat Lam endlessly talks about “the process” that his side is focused on.
If his side can focus on the process, the results will follow, he says and after his starting line up and replacements left their boots on the field for a third week in a row, all that rhetoric has a ‘half-full’ sort of feel to it at the moment.
Connacht lost this game. They came close to winning it, were worthy of the plaudits they got and in no way deserved the nonsensical disrespect sent their way by Australian born Leinster head coach Matt O’Connor in the immediate aftermath of this contest. Yet the final outcome wasn’t an injustice either.
Erratic referring aside, ill-discipline cost Connacht. Too many needless offside penalties meant that they just couldn’t point the finger at some of the questionable calls from David Wilkinson that went against them at the breakdown or the non-calls for them early in the second half.
Poor discipline plays a key role in explaining why they lost, yellow cards for Ronan Loughney on 71 minutes (for offside) and Kieran Marmion on 76 minutes (for grabbing Isaac Boss before he had taken the ball from the scrum) cost them dearly.
It was 15 men versus 13 for the final four minutes. Stand in captain Craig Clarke must have felt like General Custer as he packed down with Aly Muldowney in the second row for the five metre scrum which led to the match winning penalty try for Leinster.
The fear beforehand was that there would be a drop off in form from the visitors. In the past, Connacht sides have been stretched too thin, in terms of mental approach, to maintain the European intensity when returning to ‘domestic’ action.
Moreover, last season, in 240 minutes of rugby away from home against Irish provinces, the westerners hadn’t mustered a single point. The effort wasn’t good enough.
Yet on Saturday evening, in spite of absent players through injury, they left their dressing rooms under the old stand at the Ballsbridge venue knowing that once again they had fronted up in a big game. Three weeks in a row now, where you couldn’t fault the effort in anyway. The fundamentals remain sound.
Which takes us to the stunningly simplistic and insulting appraisal of Connacht’s efforts by the coach of Ireland’s richest province in terms of cumulative crowds, revenue generation and Heineken Cup triumphs.
“They didn’t play any rugby so it would have been an injustice to lose,” declared Matt O’Connor before adding - in relation to Connacht’s game plan - that ‘they only made 20 carries’. The accuracy of that figure notwithstanding. His comments were beyond perplexing.
Maybe O’Connor had been put out by selection requests from the national team management beforehand. Maybe he was just put out by how his scrum had been dismantled over the first hour before the excellent young prop Martin Moore had been introduced or maybe he is just enjoying the pantomime and circus that is professional rugby these days and decided to be the villain of the piece for an evening.
If it is the latter then we might as well add to the farce by stirring it up over the coming months in advance of the rematch on January 2nd at the Sportsground. Connacht supporters should be reminded of his comments time and again during the build up and a frosty reception is all O’Connor and his team deserve when they travel west to take on the side that “don’t play rugby”.
The other way of looking at it, is Connacht need to get used to this. If the process is working as Pat Lam wants it, then disrupting and agitating opponents is probably only the first step. Lets be honest, Connacht didn’t exactly play barbarian style rugby here, they kicked an awful lot of ball for a third game in a row and it worked.
In the second half, once they had established that lead, the kicking game was left to one side as they started the second half with a flurry of attacks including the one where they shunned the three points on offer and went to the corner.
For the record, the subsequent lineout worked but Leinster managed to bring down the maul as they had done minutes earlier and Connacht failed to break the whitewash. They did get another penalty out of the attack but Parks hit the post and one sensed a momentum shift as the bemused Leinster support lifted their shoulders and sat up in their seats.
From the opening two Parks penalties in the first five minutes, to the Kieran Marmion try after a Leinster five metre scrum had been shunted backwards, and three Leinster players had conspired to cough up the try, Connacht were in the mood for a battle on Saturday. That was more than refreshing considering the exertions of the previous two weekends.
Leinster stayed in touch thanks to three Ian Madigan penalties in that first half and the last one in first half injury time ultimately proved crucial and came because of some needless ill discipline from the visiting defence. They are the fine lines that can cost you even when the processes are all in place.
The hope now is that Connacht can ensure this level of performance becomes the norm even throughout November when Glasgow and Llanelli visit without their internationals, if it does, the final segments might sort themselves out.
In the end, the goal shouldn’t be to garner respect from either O’Connor or the bewildered onlookers in the crowd. The goal should be to really annoy them and deeply unsettle them, sending them home wondering how that young group of players from the rugby outpost of the west can win games with just 22 clubs and hardly any money.
Leinster: R Kearney; McFadden, Fitzgerald, Reid, D Kearney; Madigan, Reddan; McGrath, Cronin, Bent; Toner, Roux; K McLaughlin, Jennings, Heaslip. Replacements: McCarthy for Roux (46 mins), Ruddock for McLaughlin, Moore for Bent (55 mins), Kirchner for R Kearney, Gopperth for Reid, Boss for Reddan (all 71 mins), Dundon for Cronin (77 mins). Not used: O’Connell.
Connacht: Duffy; O’Halloran, Henshaw, Ronaldson, Healy; Parks, Marmion; Wilkinson, Henry, Ah You; Swift, Clarke; Fifita, Heenan, Naoupu. Replacements: Heffernan for Henry (41 mins), , Muldowney for Swift (50 mins), Cooney for Wilkinson, Loughney for Ah You (61 mins), Browne for Fifita (63 mins). Not used: O’Donohoe, Leader, Carr. Sin Bin: Loughney (70 mins), Marmion (76 mins).
Referee: David Wilkinson (IRFU).
Attendance: 17,224
Rob Murphy covers Connacht rugby for the Connacht Tribune and Sentinel, Galway Bay FM and is the creator of KnockON.ie.
