Connacht set for surreal Parisian cup experience

BY JOHN FALLON

Michael Swift tells a good yarn about the morning of Connacht’s most famous win ever in Europe when they stunned four-time Heineken Cup champions Toulouse in their own backyard seven years ago this week.

As usual, they were staying in the middle of the city, but with Christmas markets snaking through streets and into open spaces, there was little choice but to go through their lineout drills with shoppers milling around the place.

“It fairly focused the mind and made sure we got the drills right. You didn’t want to be knocking out some poor old lady with a stray throw or a dropped ball while she was out doing her shopping,” recalled Swift.

Connacht will need to do some improvising this weekend as well when they head to the most surreal rugby stadium in the world, Racing 92’s La Défense Arena, the 30,000 indoor stadium in Nanterre on the west of Paris.

It really is such a pity that supporters can’t travel because this is a sporting experience like none other. The stadium, opened almost three years ago at a cost of €360,000,000 – yes, €360million – is built in a business district with the footprint of the site restricted by a couple of cemeteries, roads, rail lines and high-rise office blocks.

It’s not a stadium with a roof on it like the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. This is more akin to a giant cinema. You are in almost complete darkness in the upper levels, all that is illuminated is the pitch. The seats are tiered high on three sides, the fourth side has a gigantic street as a few feet the other side of the wall is a road.

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

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