Connacht go hunting tries in Madrid

Date Published: 22-Jan-2010

CONNAChT Rugby has the opportunity to claim the ultimate prize of a reasonable home draw against another Challenge Cup pool winner – instead of a Heineken Cup group runner-up – should they secure a bonus point victory against Olympus Rugby XV Madrid at Ciuadad Universitaria tomorrow (kick-off 4pm).

Indeed, a win may be just enough, depending on the outcome of last night’s match between London Wasps and Racing Metro 92. If Wasps, who have one more group point than Connacht, collected a bonus point victory, then the Westerners efforts will count for nothing in terms of taking top seeding, but nevertheless they will want to finish the pool stages unbeaten and secure as high a seeding as possible.

If Connacht, who have already qualified for the quarter- finals, were to lose in Spain – and that is highly unlikely – then they could be leapfrogged in the Challenge Cup order of merit by Leeds Carnegie or Bourgoin, Toulon or Saracens, or Newcastle Falcons.

While Connacht would still retain a home draw, they would have to face one of the runners-up from the Heineken Cup group stages. This could be any team from Irish rivals Ulster to Gloucester Rugby, both former Heineken Cup winners.

Fortunately, though, that part of Connacht’s destiny lies firmly in their own hands, and one would expect the pool 2 winners to register a significant win over Amlin Challenge Cup newcomers Olympus Rugby.

For one, Connacht is one of just two teams (Wasps being the other) out of the 44 in the Amlin and Heineken Cups that have gone unbeaten so far in their competition ahead of this weekend’s final series of games, a record, one suspects, they will wish to maintain.

This includes a substantial 46-6 home victory over Olympus Rugby, and home and away doubles over both Worcester and Montpellier. Of course, if London Wasps suffered a defeat last night, then Connacht would be the only unbeaten team in European championship rugby this season. That would be quite an achievement.

In many respects, Connacht’s impressive run should not come as a surprise. Certainly, this is a competition that the West of Ireland province has had a great affinity with, reaching the semifinals on two occasions (2004 & ‘05) and the quarter-finals four times (2003, ‘06, ’09 and now ‘10) in the last decade alone. In all, Connacht has reached the knockout stages of this competition seven times.

No doubt, that is an amazing statistic in itself, as is the fact that they are the only team to compete for all 14 seasons in this competition. In all, that amounts to 89 games, with the Madrid clash tomorrow rounding off that total to 90.

As for newcomers Olympus Rugby, they have not recorded a single point – bonus or otherwise – in the group stages, and, indeed, have only scored four tries compared to Connacht’s 18 in their five matches to date.

Madrid have also suffered some sound beatings at home, no more so than that a 5-38 defeat to Worcester and a 6-42 loss to Montpellier. Their heaviest group defeat, though, was away to Worcester last weekend, when they lost 54-3.

This is hardly the form any side would want to take into any game, but, then again, the Spanish invitational side have had little to play for since early in this competition. Drubbing has followed drubbing, although there was one chink of light for them in their group campaign when they racked up a healthy score in their 57-24 defeat away to Montpellier.

Not to be too impertinent, this will hardly leave Connacht shaking in their boots, although Bradley and his coaching staff did not appear to be taking this game for granted as they delayed even their squad selection until late on Thursday evening