'Experience will drive us on in league next week'

FOR THE longer-serving Connacht players, those who had toiled through the tough times, there must have been a whirl of post-match emotions.

There’ll have been laments that they didn’t rise to the occasion as everyone else did and they maybe didn’t do enough do make the newer fans return. Yet it will have been one of their most memorable and proudest days wearing the green of their province.

As a proud man of Mayo and Connacht, Gavin Duffy was entitled to feel he played his part to the utmost. With his GAA roots, his aerial prowess was as evident as ever, whether at the back or chasing kicks, whether using his trusty right boot to find one-bounce touches or having a go from deep, Duffy was excellent – Connacht’s best player and at ease in this celebrated company.

Not that he would have thought like that, for he was looking at the bigger picture. Asked, after all the hype and build-up, if the sense of occasion was everything he’d imagined when he led his team out, Duffy merely said “Yeah, it was, it was unbelievable, to be honest with you,” as the emotion swelled up in his eyes.

Damn and blast it, Toulouse were just too good. “Relentless” was the word he repeated when reflecting on the performance of the four-time winners and the way they applied pressure “right from the first minute”.

“They kicked their penalties and I thought they were very smart in doing so, they tried to kill the crowd. In fairness to the crowd, they weren’t having any of that, they supported us for 80 minutes.”

Duffy was particular struck by one aspect of Toulouse’s play: “Their transition from defence into attack was a bit of an eye-opener as well,” he said, “the way they attacked the breakdown, their off-loads. I think they were very, very good. Perhaps we didn’t hit the high standards we have hit over the last couple of weeks but I think we can be proud of our efforts as well.”

Looking ahead to the equally important Rabo 12 days, which Duffy acknowledges is their route into future Heineken Cups, but when there won’t be 9,000-plus here or the same sense of occasion, Duffy said: “If we can take anything out of tonight and the last week, I think it’s that we want to be playing at this level. We have to be playing at this level; the young lads want to play at this level and that will drive us forward next week in the Rabo Direct because we have that hunger to come back here next year.”

As a former player, forwards coach Dan McFarland was also experiencing the gamut of thoughts. “The emotional build-up over the last three weeks coming into the Heineken Cup has been tremendous. The people of Connacht have bought into it. You can’t move anywhere without people talking about it.

“Nobody who is involved with the organisation cannot but be pulled along by it. The work around, you can see yourself. I was talking to Michael Swift yesterday and the first season I was here (2001-02) we played Beziers and Tim Allnut reckons there were less than 200 people here. And that’s against Beziers, who rugby people will know are one of the greatest French clubs of all time. And here we were tonight in front of 9,000 people and they are loving their night, what more can you ask?”

McFarland acknowledged Toulouse “squeezed the life out of the game early on” and the Connacht scrum suffered but concluded: “Next week, in terms of results, is more important for us than this week. Full stop. We need four points in the Rabo.

“One of the interesting things is the fact we are disappointed with our performance and the fact the occasion has not overcome the concentration on performance will help us. I suspect we will sit down at the beginning of the week and say whatever about the occasion, we really didn’t do ourselves justice.

“Yes, we were beaten by a very good side, but we could have been better and we will have to be better because, yes it was Toulouse, but the Ospreys, they are not minnows, are they?”