Connacht stun league champs

Date Published: 07-Oct-2008

A ONE point hammering, if ever there was one. Connacht people were due a day like this and their pent up, fiercely determined, and stubbornly defiant rugby team delivered for them like never before on
Sunday night to give rugby in the west the shot in the arm it so desperately needed.

This was one of the greatest days the Sportsground has ever seen. Moral victories can go take a run and jump in the Lough Atalia from now on. Connacht have arrived. Battered and bruised from last week’s performance and seemingly at their lowest ebb, the 14 men in green defended for 23 minutes like their lives depended on it and each in their own right worked their way into the provincial rugby folklore.

Just shy of 3,000 people were there at the start, by the midway point of the second half word had seemingly spread through the city and another 1,000 had joined them. Most made it in to see one of the most explosive and wonderful tries ever to grace the College Road venue and they got to see a sickened Leinster react abysmally to conceding. The drama was incredible.

From there, Connacht had to defend diligently and relentlessly and at times the Gods were certainly smiling through the cloudless skies but for once in one of these Magners League derbies, the men in green’s honesty and commitment was rewarded with a victory. A streak of 13 straight defeats to Irish provinces is now history.

The game finished in a fashion that Munster have made a profession out of in recent years. Six minutes of close-in rugby with ball in hand making inches from phase to phase and no more. There was control and composure on display from every forward and not a chance for Leinster. Sure, the referee could have blown for forwards off their feet but fair play, George Clancy decided not to hand this on a plate to Leinster – they didn’t deserve it.

The story of the match makes for an intensely gripping read from start to finish and requires no embellishing. Leinster started like…..