To hell or to Agen. It says something about Connacht's current standing that the province's coaches reacted favourably to an away tie against a highly ranked French side containing five internationals when the draw for the European Conference quarter-finals was made in the Shelbourne Hotel yesterday. Connacht, resigned to an away tie on the weekend of November 8th and 9th after being ranked eighth of the Conference pool winners, were drawn at Agen who were ranked second of the last eight by virtue of a 100 per cent record in Pool A.
Admittedly, that pool looked the weakest of the Conference - the other teams were Bristol, Ebbw Vale and La Rochelle. Nevertheless, a team containing internationals Abdelatif Benazzi, Philippe Benetton, Marc Dalmaso, Olivier Campan and Guillame Bouic is formidable.
However, Connacht coach Warren Gatland and his assistant Michael Cosgrave felt the draw could have been worse, particularly as they had come within a 50-50 chance of being permed with Newcastle.
"I'm glad it was one of the French sides instead of Newcastle," was Gatland's instant reaction. "They've got a little more firepower with guys like Tuigamala and a lot of other internationals."
"We've already done well in France," added Gatland in recognition of their win at Begles-Bordeaux and controversial injury-time defeat in Nice. "The further we get away from home the less pressure there is on us."
"We've played well away from home and being in France gives us a chance to go away a few days earlier. It's easier to prepare properly without the distractions of work and family. The French will probably say to themselves `who's Connacht?' and find it difficult to motivate themselves."
"We like being away from home," joked Cosgrave, who added that Connacht "psyche ourselves better away. The bigger the uphill battle, we react accordingly, and that's what happened in Begles and Northampton."
The Connacht management watched Agen's 45-18 pool win at home to Bristol on television while they were in France.
"Bristol were poor and it was a bit dour in the first half. But having said that, Agen were pretty powerful up front. The scrum-half liked to pop the ball to Benazzi, Dalmaso and Benetton, and they just kept driving off the fringes."
That's probably to be expected from a side coached by former French front-row legend Daniel Dubroca, the French coach at the centre of some post-match controversy when England beat France in the 1991 World Cup quarterfinals at Parc des Princes. If Connacht win this they had better leave the coach's engine running.
Back-row partners Benazzi and Benetton have 107 caps between them, while the brilliant Benazzi and Dalmaso were ever present cornerstones of France's grand slam team last year. Agen play at Stade Philippe Sella, in honour of their former centre and most capped French player of all time, and will probably draw a near capacity 13,000 crowd for the quarter-final.
Despite losing two of their opening three French championship games to Castres (26-27) and Perpignan (6-19) either side of beating Grenoble (29-20), Agen have some serious form and pedigree. The eight-times French champions (their last title came in 1988) reached the semi-finals last year after beating Begles 22-18 in the quarter-finals before being stopped by eventual winners and reigning four-times French champions Toulouse, 23-16.
Connacht are trying to arrange a friendly with Glasgow the weekend after next. Glasgow have a similar spell of inactivity before the Heineken European Cup playoff away to Leicester on November 1st or 2nd.
In the European Cup, Harlequins have paid a heavy price for their failure to beat Munster last weekend and must play away to Toulouse in the quarter-finals. The tie in Toulouse is the only clear-cut match in the draw at present.
The four English clubs have been kept apart, though, with Wasps at home to Brive or Pontypridd, who meet for the third time in seven weeks in the quarter-final play-offs in the first weekend of next month.
