Muldoon wasn't going to be embarrassed again

TO PLAY AS HE did after the rigours of playing Munster only 72 hours earlier told us much about the character, heart and physical strength of captain John Muldoon.

But his tour-de-force, leader-from-the-front performance also told us how much these last two derbies at home to Ireland's Euro superpowers mattered to Connacht.

“I just gave an interview downstairs and I said we were embarrassed and we don’t get embarrassed twice at home, and I think that pretty much sums it up,” said Muldoon, his voice still trembling with a mixture of physical exhaustion and emotion.

“We were shocking disappointing against Munster. We just didn’t turn up on the day and I suppose that happens now and again. We can’t put our finger on what it is but we definitely turned up in bucket loads today.

“The lads were superb, especially the lads who doubled up again today. George (Naoupu) again – another superb 80 minutes out of him and it’s a pity he’s leaving, that’s all I can say.”

To that name he could, of course, have added a host more, including their restructured midfield of Aidan Wynne and Troy Nathan, who had an astonishing match and made ground nearly every time he touched the ball, and Gavin Duffy, whose fielding and counter-attacking was inspired.

“I’d say a a lot of fans leaving here on Sunday might have thought ‘same old Connacht’ but there’s a lot more heart than people down south think and I’m just glad that everybody has seen it tonight.”

Michael Cheika was both angry and ruthlessly frank in his assessment, saying: “As long as we continue to bring a poor attitude to this fixture, we’ll continue to get beaten or struggle to win it, simple as that. We had no edge.

“We had a lot of ball, and we worked very hard but we didn’t really want to get through holes. We lacked attitude in defence as well, we were brittle on the fringe of the ruck and maul, and that’s attitude.

“You can’t defend like the boss one week and the cookie man the next.

“It’s not the right attitude and I feel like I’ve failed in that regard with Leinster in a way, because this is a fixture we shouldn’t disrespect.”

Cheika confirmed that Girvan Dempsey suffered a neck injury which may or may not have ended his season though otherwise there were no serious knocks. That included Brian O’Driscoll even though he was limping for periods in the match.

Connacht coach Michael Bradley said: “It was a good day for us. It was a difficult ask three days after the Munster match and Munster and Leinster would be our two biggest games of the season.”