Sports
Ambitious Muldoon is anxious Connacht take the fight to Gloucester
CAPTAIN John Muldoon arrived at Connacht Rugby’s midweek press conference with tears rolling down his cheek. Still hurting from the drubbing away to Munster at the weekend? Not exactly.
The back-row forward was just out of the doctors after his eye was scratched in training earlier that morning. He didn’t say, but the Portumna man could be forgiven for shedding a sly tear three months ago, too. At home, on the couch, channel surfing, Muldoon stumbled across that epic TG4 programme, The West’s Awake.
The fly-on-the-wall documentary chronicled Connacht’s inaugural Heineken Cup season in 2011/2012 when they endured 14-straight defeats in all competitions.
Muldoon dipped into the action, midway through, just around the time in the season and programme when Connacht played Gloucester, who are this weekend’s Challenge Cup quarter-final.
“I had to turn it off. It still frustrated me,” he says. Four years on and he still couldn’t watch the late horror unfold. Connacht were leading by three, but conceded a try four minutes from time through a missed tackle on Gloucester’s Johnny May.
They lost by four – their tenth loss in a row, and probably the most difficult to stomach given how they dominated the match. It still hurts? “It always does,” says Muldoon. “At the time it felt like the World was on our shoulders and every time we thought we had a lifeline, something would come and take the ladder or the feet from under us, and that’s how it felt that night.”
Connacht have matured a lot since then. And even though they were fairly battered by Munster at the weekend – losing 42-20 and shipping six tries in the process at Thomond Park – there is no sense of doom about the place.
“When you go through that, maybe ten matches, nothing seems to go right for you and there’s an air of desperation in everything that you do. Whereas now ultimately we didn’t play as well as we’d hoped to play against Munster in Thomond Park, which is a lot like Gloucester in Kingsholm. We didn’t play to the best of our ability and in some aspects, not even close.
“But yet after 57 or 58 minutes, it’s seven-six. We know if we get things right we could be easily winning that game and winning it comfortably. When you think about it that way, we should be going into this Gloucester game with a lot of confidence and it’s up to us to fix those few things we got wrong.”
The loss to Munster was demoralising. But Muldoon accentuates the positives. After all, with just a handful of games remaining in the season, Connacht players aren’t looking ahead to the summer holidays – they’re very much in contention in the league and cup.
“First of all it’s great to be here,” he says. “It’s not too often you sit here coming in to the month of April and you’re in the top six in the league and you’re in a quarter final in Europe, and potentially a home semi-final. It’s exciting times for us. It is a cup, it is knockout, it is a competition that we’ve done well in but ultimately we’ve no silverware to show.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GALWAY United need to guard against any kind of complacency when they make the short hop down the M18 this Friday to take on Treaty United at the Markets Field (7.45pm).
The game is a meeting of the two form teams in the division, and as in previous meetings between the sides, will have an additional edge given the number of former United players in the home side’s ranks, and the pair of Limerick lads playing for United.
There might have been just the eight meetings between the sides since Treaty became the latest iteration to represent Limerick in the League of Ireland in 2021, and while United have yet to lose to the men in the candy-cane strips, there has never been more than a goal in four of their eight wins.
The most recent of those was back in February, when Rob Slevin scored the only goal of the game in Eamonn Deacy Park after a tough battle against a side who made a slow start to the season, before finally finding their groove in the past month.
Having taken just three points from their first six games before finally getting a win against Longford Town, they reverted to type with just one point from their next three games, but are now on a run of four wins on the spin, scoring 12 goals and conceding just one.
Their most recent win was a 3-0 victory away to Longford Town last Saturday, and they could have won by double that against the only side to have beaten United this season. That in itself is a warning.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Soccer Wrap with Mike Rafferty
While the Salthill Devon men’s team might have lost their grip on the Connacht Junior Cup that they held for two seasons, the club’s women’s side have picked up the mantle and on Sunday last in Headford were crowned provincial champions with a 4-3 win over Manulla.
Following midweek wins for Maree/Oranmore and Knocknacarra, the stage is now almost set for the semi-finals of the Michael Byrne Cup with Salthill Devon meeting St Bernard’s on Sunday in an outstanding quarter-final, with the winners advancing to a semi-final against Maree/Oranmore, while Colga will face Knocknacarra in the other last four contest.
Just one league issue remains to be decided, with the Championship runners-up position up for grabs, as Dynamo Blues have to win their two remaining games in order to overtake Colemanstown United who have finished their programme.
WOMEN’S CONNACHT CUP FINAL
Salthill Devon 4
Manulla 3
Ellerose O’Flaherty scored twice as Salthill Devon were crowned provincial champions with a win over a Mayo side who were losing in the final for the second year in succession.
Backboned by a number of players who previously had League of Ireland experience with Galway WFC, Devon suffered an early set back when Jess Nolan put Manulla ahead, before O’Flaherty levelled matters with a cracking finish on 20 minutes, which was quickly followed by a long-range free-kick from Aoife Walsh.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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