Another defeat but talks of a crisis are premature

Scarlets 17

Connacht 8

Rob Murphy in Parc Y Scarlets

No one expected this start but let’s begin this report by trying to find a stable footing, a sober assessment that most people should be able to agree upon. After this nine-point loss in west Wales on Saturday evening, it’s now zero points from three games for Connacht and, unbelievably, the word ‘crisis’ has appeared in some media. So, as a result, some grounded thinking is badly needed.

The rest of the league have completely forgotten about Pat Lam’s group of trailblazers in the West and they’ll point to all sorts of reasons for it. If we can leave aside the fourth game in Zebre where Connacht trailed by 12 at half-time before a timely downpour led to a postponement (that’s not a good story either, but it is an incomplete one and therefore should be disregarded) and focus on the trio of defeats, we must first acknowledge the strength of the opponents.

Glasgow and the Ospreys are serious title contenders, so too are the Scarlets. These were not easy fixtures for a full-strength Connacht in the championship-winning season just gone. Two single score victories and one single score defeat was the return in 2015/16, add in injuries and the accepted reality that Lam’s side have lost three key men from the title winning squad and maybe a more realistic assessment begins to take shape.

Long before Connacht’s breath-taking run of results in May, the news that Aly Muldowney, Robbie Henshaw and Aj MacGinty were leaving was out there. At that time, the common consensus was very much along the lines that no matter what happens in the final few weeks of the season, Connacht would be in something of a mini rebuild come the new campaign.

On top of that, a ‘let’s make hay while the sun shines’ mentality took hold around the team. A sort of ‘now or never’ feel underpinned the story. First, around the notion of securing a top six spot; then in regards to making the playoffs; and finally in relation to securing the entire bloody title. It all happened so fast, it was spectacular and wonderful in its execution. Glorious, in fact, and we all were swept along.

Somewhere along the way, we forgot about the rebuild; we thought the trophy would engender belief in players slightly below the level of the aforementioned trio; and assumed that the entire squad wouldn’t take too much of a step back. We were wrong to do that, but not spectacularly wrong either, and Saturday, at a rain soaked Parc y Scarlets, provided plenty of reason to hope that things can change.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.