Connacht 8 - Leinster 16
By Rob Murphy at the Sportsground
So George Clancy is sitting at home in county Limerick on Sunday perhaps bemused, perhaps perplexed by all the frustration around his officiating on Sunday. Maybe he’ll call his colleague Dudley Phillips who refereed the Munster and Connacht game a week earlier and ask him what’s going on with these Connacht people? Why the aggravation?
He’ll rightly point out that mistakes happen on a rugby pitch, that he’s human and he’ll probably feel that overall he had quite a good game (in fairness for the first hour, he wasn’t doing that badly). He’ll say he honestly thought that Jamie Heaslip had fumbled the ball backwards in the 63rd minute break from a scrum that led to the Jimmy Gopperth penalty to put Leinster in front - replays clearly showed an obvious knockon that most of the 7,210 had spotted in play.
He’ll say that it wasn’t him who didn’t sanction a yellow card for Jamie Heaslip’s shoulder leading late and high hit on Dan Parks, it was TMO Jude Quinn. He’ll note that on the forward pass for Gordon D’Arcy’s match clinching try, he didn’t have a clear view, got no help from his touch judges and that Mr Quinn in the TV truck couldn’t be certain.
So if he is wondering why Connacht rugby folk are consistently so frustrated with Irish referees, maybe we can help. It comes down to communication with players and body language. Dudley Phillips let Munster players run the show on December 27th, they were talking to him incessantly and managed to convince him to go to the TMO, during the second half which led to a momentum reversing penalty.
One incident from Saturday’s clash at a damp and becalmed Sportsground in front of a full house best sums up the in balance in Clancy’s approach to the game. While Gopperth was lining up that kick to take a 9-8 lead. Clancy was seen having a long in depth conversation with four Leinster players, his microphone captured a 40 second discussion. He was imploring them to use the ball quicker at the base of a stationary scrum or he’d have to call a turnover.
Connacht players were not included in the conversation, they were down the field awaiting the kick. When the TMO made the call on Heaslip’s late charge - giving Connacht a penalty where the ball landed - he asked for the Leinster captain to be merely ‘warned as to his future conduct’ Clancy jogged over to the offending party and had a quick chat, tapping the number eight on the lower back when he was done. All friends here.
That’s a lot of time on the referee for one match report but Connacht supporters will remember this game for two reasons, the superb performance of their young backline against a cast of superstars and those three decisions at the end of the match.
This wasn’t daylight robbery, far from it. Leinster were hardly rampant, rarely fluent and mostly uninspiring but they came to do a job and as the second half wore on, Connacht’s influence waned. In total Connacht missed four kicks at goal from five attempts, Parks 67th minute miss after that penalty was the most glaring as it came from the man whose experience from the bench was meant to aid the side.
The first half brought a raft of positives for the home side, they led 8-3 at the break. They had started well, withstood some heavy pressure midway through the half and finished strongly for good measure.
The try was a thing of beauty. It was aided young Jack Carty, just 21 years of age, thrown in at the deep end by a coach not unwilling to roll the dice on such occasions. He was on the front foot all the time, an attacking threat, fixing defenders and passing well. He was also strong under the high ball.
For the score, he sent a pass towards Eoin Griffin but the away defence was up quickly and in his face, the young Galwegian improvised brilliantly. Flicking the ball on in one split second, that took O’Driscoll out, Robbie Henshaw burned the flailing defender with a side step and burst clear, he drew Rob Kearney then released Fionn Carr with a brilliant pass and the winger showed is lightning speed in the finish.
It was a special moment, the highlight of a half where Kieran Marmion overshadowed Eoin Reddan, where Eoin McKeon squared up to a seemingly disinterested Heaslip, where Jack Carty offered infinitely more than the much lauded Ian Madigan and where Darragh Leader excelled under the a bombardment of garryowens from an unadventurous visiting outfit.
The second half was always going to be a tougher assignment as Leinster had kept plenty of firepower on the bench for a late surge and eight points wasn’t going to be enough. Connacht had missed a conversion and two other kicks during that first half. They paid for it ultimately.
Heaslip’s hit on Park’s was the turning point, it was almost as though he needed to lash out to get himself into the game because once he did that, he turned from a lazy number eight offering nothing, into a match winner as he set up the winning try with a brilliant break. He’s no thug, he’s not an especially dirty player but we feel the need to say that because a replay of the Parks hit might lead some to believe otherwise. That’s his fault.
For Connacht the lessons can be taken, once again the front row stood firm, the lineout work of captain Craig Clarke was exemplary - although he gave away a momentum turning penalty during the second half that was costly - John Muldoon was a machine and a powerhouse all wrapped into one and yet it just wasn’t enough.
Neutral referees from outside Ireland would stamp out a lot of the frustrations in these derby fixtures, it probably won’t happen mind you but at least the problems were highlighted front and centre on national TV over the past few weeks. The rest of the country is finally waking up to the fact that the westerners might not be getting balanced arbitration.
In the long run, that might be more useful than the losing bonus point they would have garnered had Clancy brought his A game.
Connacht: D Leader: F Carr, R Henshaw, E Griffin, M Healy; J Carty, K Marmion; B Wilkinson, J Harris Wright, N White; M Kearney, C Clarke; A Browne, J Muldoon, E McKeon.
Replacement: R Ah You for White 44 mins; D Buckley for Wilkinson 57 mins; D Parks for Carty 60 mins; T O’Halloran for Leader 66 mins; M Swift for Kearney 70 mins; P O’Donohoe for Marmion 71 mins; D Heffernan for Harris Wright 74 mins; Naoupu for Browne 77 mins.
Leinster: R Kearney; Z Kirchner, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, D Kearney; I Madigan, E Reddan; J McGrath, S Cronin, M Moore; D Toner, T Denton; R Ruddock, J Murphy, J Heaslip.
Replacement: M McCarthy for Denton H/t; M Ross for Moore 47 mins; D Ryan for Ruddock; I Boss for Reddan; J Gopperth for Madigan 54 mins; A Dundon for Cronin (70-77 mins); J O’Connell for McGrath 77 mins.
Referee: George Clancy
Rob Murphy covers Connacht rugby for the Connacht Tribune and Sentinel, Galway Bay FM and is the creator of KnockON.ie.
