A jam-packed rugby weekend and one packed with significant results too, not least in the URC. Connacht, Leinster and Munster all produced some of the best performances of the season and the net effect was to concertina the top nine and drag Ulster back into the pack.
Nine into eight won’t go and Connacht still have the most work to do – marginally – after that epic 33-24 win against the Stormers in Cape Town last Saturday. The western province went into the weekend one point and one place outside the top eight and despite that five-point haul, that’s where they stayed.
Cardiff, for their part, trailed 24-7 away to the Scarlets before scoring three tries in the last 10 minutes. Munster thumped Benetton in Treviso, after the Lions and Bulls also had bonus-point wins.
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Naturally, the announcement of Connacht’s win was loudly acclaimed at Dexcom Stadium during the Ireland under-21 women’s international. That match, incidentally, preceded Ireland’s 57-20 Six Nations win over Italy.
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Talking among some colleagues from the west in the stadium’s spacious new press room, it was agreed that this victory over the Stormers was worthy of inclusion in Connacht’s top five of all time. Understandably, the 2015-16 Pro12 triumph dominates the list, with the win over Leinster in the Murrayfield final heading the epic victories over Glasgow in the semi-final and last round of the regular season.
Ending the long winless run in Thomond Park that season, with Robbie Henshaw and Bundee Aki in brilliant harmony, was worthy of consideration too, along with a number of underdog wins over Leinster, be it in the RDS or what is now the Dexcom – such as John Muldoon’s last match.
Yet, allowing for recency bias, to put Connacht’s first away victory over the Stormers in perspective, their starting XV had four internationals, each with fewer than 10 caps and with a combined haul of 20. The Stormers’ XV had no less than 10 Springboks, with a total of 177 Test caps. Accordingly, Connacht were 23-point underdogs and 16/1 or 17/1 to win.
The team sent out by Stuart Lancaster in Cape Town included two academy players in Billy Bohan (20-years-old in his seventh start) and Sean Naughton (21-years-old in his eighth start and just his second at outhalf).
What’s more, when 22-year-old Hugh Gavin replaced the injured Cathal Forde in the eighth minute, it meant Connacht’s only back over the age of 25 was Sam Gilbert. They had four backs aged 23 or under against a Stormers backline whose only player under 25 was Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (24).
When the 22-year-old academy hooker Matthew Victory replaced the injured Dave Heffernan after 31 minutes, Connacht’s frontrow comprised players aged 20, 22 and 25 – and they were against an all-Springbok frontrow. This was all very Lancasteresque. The investment and faith in young players has been handsomely rewarded.
Take the tighthead Sam Illo. Watching Connacht’s first URC game under Lancaster at home to Benetton last September, Illo’s performance left the most lasting impression. Here was a talent about to be fulfilled and the thought occurred that young players would flourish under Lancaster, as has been the case throughout his coaching career. But perhaps not this quickly.
Okay, Illo’s delayed progress has been partly down to injuries, but whereas he had only started two games in his previous four seasons at Connacht, last Saturday was his 10th start this season.
Not only are the academy players more involved in Lancaster’s famed high-tempo sessions, but they are allowed to make mistakes and not be hammered, either by the coaches or the older players. Lancaster places trust in them too.
This writer was fortunate to take in a couple of Corinthians matches when Naughton and John Devine (who made just his second Connacht start against the Stormers) worked together in exciting harmony. It’s hard to recall when there was such a surfeit of outhalf talent in Irish rugby and Naughton, who was one of Sam Prendergast’s understudies in the under-20s, was given full licence to display his range of passing and kicking with Corinthians.
Necessity being the mother of invention, Lancaster gave Naughton a run of games at fullback before Gilbert arrived, but that investment paid off in Cape Town when Naughton’s daring intercept sealed a remarkable comeback from 24-14 down inside the last quarter after the excellent Ben Murphy had set up Devine and then scored himself.
Harry West, the talented 23-year-old from Mayo, has also flourished and it’s great to see players coming through the Connacht pathway as well as clever talent identification, be it in Leinster or the southern hemisphere.
Afterwards, Lancaster rightly pointed out this is still just his first season with Connacht. Credit must also go to the academy staff and others in the development pathway, as well as the players. He also acknowledged the work of those behind the new Clan Stand, which has been a game changer.
Lancaster rated this as one of the best wins of his coaching career, not just with Connacht – describing it as “the stuff of dreams”. Not so long ago, an opposition visit to the Connacht 22 usually led to the concession of a seven-pointer but not anymore. The key, Lancaster reckoned, was how Connacht “stayed in the fight”.
He also revealed that the average ball-in-play time for Connacht in the URC was 38/39 minutes, whereas it was 30/31 minutes for the Stormers. And so, if Connacht were still in the fight for the last 20, they could capitalise. They did just that.
Connacht made no net gain in the table and have to take on the free-scoring Lions, who beat Glasgow 54-12 last Saturday, before they host Munster on May 9th and finish away to Edinburgh. So they are possibly still fractionally the outsiders of the top nine. Yet this underlined how important Connacht’s five-point haul in Cape Town was in helping them stay in touch.
They’re still in the fight.
