Connacht’s pain magnified by missing Munster quarter-final

The Munster-Toulouse quarter-final will be all the harder for Connacht players, management and supporters alike to watch after they came within a drop goal or a penalty of qualifying instead of the French four-time winners for that Thomond Park rendezvous.

Connacht went into Sunday’s game knowing that a bonus point defeat would have ensured them of qualification for the knockout stages for the first time, provided they didn’t concede four tries to Toulouse. A defeat by five points or less would have earned them a quarter-final away to Saracens, but a loss by six or seven points would have set up an epic derby with Munster.

Instead, Toulouse’s 19-10 win earned them a shot at redemption, having lost a quarter-final there by 47-23 three seasons ago in their only previous visit to Thomond Park.

As expected, Wasps’ 41-27 win over Zebre sealed top spot in Pool Two and earned them an away quarter-final against Leinster at the Aviva.

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Pat Lam: ‘You miss out by two points, it’s a killer blow’

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Munster grit their teeth to get the job done

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The two Irish provinces are in separate halves of the draw and cannot meet before the final in Murrayfield, although in the long run, Munster could be a prime beneficiary of Leinster’s failure to beat Castres in Friday’s 24-all draw.

By dint of their 22-10 win over Racing 92 at Thomond Park on Saturday, Munster climbed to second in the ranking, and thus have a chance of having home country advantage in the semi-finals should they beat Toulouse.

If Saracens beat Glasgow at home in the quarter-finals, Munster would have home country advantage, although if Glasgow won then they would host Munster in what would be their fifth meeting of the season.

But under the vagaries of a complicated new semi-final set- up, if Leinster overcome Wasps, they will be consigned to an away semi-final in France, against the winners of the Clermont-Toulon quarter-final.

Dream is over

For Connacht though, the dream is over, after they finished level on 18 points with Toulouse, but despite winning more games and scoring more tries, lost out on the first criterion for separating sides on the same points, namely the head-to-head record.

Toulouse earned a bonus point on the opening weekend in the Sportsground when losing 23-21, which turned out to be crucial, and Connacht were also left with plenty of regrets yesterday after conceding three tries to go 19-3 down before forcing their way back into contention thanks to a try by captain John Muldoon, who very nearly didn’t play due to a tweaked hamstring in training late in the week.

“That was frustrating,” admitted Pat Lam. “We were right in that game. We made errors, but to beat both of these (Wasps and Toulouse) just shows how far we’ve come at home, but we had a realistic chance to win. After giving away 14 points, I’d say there’s lots of people at home that thought, ‘This is gone, they’re going to get their four tries.’ And then the way the boys grounded out and unfortunately we are a team that needs to play as a team.

“Dropped balls, errors, wrong systems are things that will hurt us badly. It’s been doing that for the last four or five weeks for our team. Again, it’s all learnings for us.”

Connacht currently stand eighth in the Pro12, a dozen points off the top six automatic qualifying places, but Lam has no doubt that his squad will be able to overcome this acute disappointment and refocus.

Get the jersey

“It won’t be difficult at all. At the end of the day everyone wants to get the jersey and play rugby. That’s ultimately, whether Champions Cup or Pro12, we want to play rugby for Connacht Rugby and play well. It’s just about dusting ourselves off, take the lessons and get back into it. Cardiff is the next goal, we have just got to get winning again. Once we get that we will start building from there.

“We’ve got to make sure we earn our right to be back in this competition again this year. We’ve got a week off now to recover and then we’ve got five big games on the trot. I think we’ve got Cardiff, Dragons, Zebre, Treviso, Zebre so there’s no doubt we’ve got to win all of those to get us back on track and hunting around that top six, and then we’ll see what happens form there.”

Insisting that there is still “a long way to go” in Connacht’s season, Lam could reflect on the last of his four European campaigns with the province.

“To where we are now, we worked hard and there was a genuine chance right up until the last play, and that shows you how far we have come. Earning the right to be top seeds, and then almost getting there. That is the frustrating bit at the end of it, but I am pretty proud of how far we have come in Champions Cup rugby. I am determined and so are the players, to make sure that Connacht Rugby is here next year, even if I’m not.”

Delight

The Toulouse captain Thierry Dusautoir expressed his delight at the prospect of playing Munster in Thomond Park.

“We’re really happy. It’s a great win. We’re just happy to play the quarter-final against Munster. It’s been a long time for us since we played in the quarter-final. The last time was in Munster. It’s a bad memory, but we will try to do better next time.”

Dusautoir missed that game through injury, and said: “I hope I will be there because it’s a great stadium with a great atmosphere. I’ve never played there, so for me it would be really nice to experience that. I hope the guys will help me to have a good memory, but it’s going to be really, really hard for us and will need a big effort from Toulouse.”

“They really managed their pool well. I know they had very difficult moments with the loss of Anthony Foley but it’s like that has made them stronger. I think all the people from Cork and Limerick are behind them, as always, but it’s even more and more this year. We know that it’s going to be hard. Yesterday they had a great game against Racing. We’re going to take our chance. It’s a quarter-final and we can hope for something nice for Stade Toulousain.”

Meanwhile, the Leinster coach Leo Cullen appeared reasonably confident that Johnny Sexton’s calf injury which forced his withdrawal after 21 minutes in Castres on Friday night would not jeopardise his involvement in the Six Nations and Sexton is expected to be named in the irish squad which Joe Schmidt will unveil on Monday morning.

*Toulouse’s 19-10 win over Connacht, coupled with Wasps’ 41-27 win away to Zebre, means the quarter-final line-up is as follows...

QUARTER-FINALS

Clermont v Toulon
Munster v Toulouse
Saracens v Glasgow
Leinster v Wasps

SEMI-FINALS 

Clermont or Toulon v Leinster or Wasps

If Clermont and Leinster win, Clermont will have home country advantage
If Wasps and Clermont win, Wasps will have home country advantage
If Toulon and Leinster win, Toulon will have home country advantage
If Wasps and Toulon win, Toulon will have home country advantage

Saracens or Toulouse v Munster or Glasgow

If Munster and Saracens win, Munster will have home country advantage
If Toulouse and Saracens win, Toulouse will have home country advantage
If Glasgow and Munster win, Glasgow will have home country advantage
If Glasgow and Toulouse win, Glasgow will have home country advantage