Magnificent Connacht clinch home semi-final by flooring the champs

Connacht 14

Glasgow 7

FOR a brief moment in the final five minutes of Saturday’s gripping end of season encounter at the Sportsground, we were treated to one of those moments where you have to stop and take it all in.

Connacht were leading by seven, Glasgow were fighting for a draw that would secure home advantage in a play off semi final and it was all hands on deck at the saturated College Road venue.

Packing down in the scrum in those closing minutes were Tom McCartney at loosehead prop, the Kiwi hooker was scrummaging for the first time in over half a decade because of all the injuries, Dave Heffernan at hooker, the industrious and unbreakable Ballina man was fourth choice at one point this year, and JP Cooney at tighthead, option number six for that role at the outset of the season.

That scrum held firm, didn’t shudder and provided the ball Eoin McKeon needed to burst off the back and get Connacht going again. That scrum epitomises a season where the westerners have completely re-written entire sections of the manual, .

In front of what must have been the loudest Pro12 crowd of the season, Connacht delivered on their final objective. Having secured Champions Cup rugby weeks ago and a first ever top four play off position just last week, Saturday was about the top two and a home semi final, as it happens, it will be against Gregor Townsend’s Glasgow Warriors. The reigning champions will be a little wiser when they return in two weeks but no less beatable too.

Last season ended in late May away to Gloucester in Kingsholm. A play off game for Champions Cup rugby qualification after Connacht’s strong Pro12 campaign had yielded a seventh place league finish. We thought the 40-32 extra time defeat that night would remain etched in the memory for years to come, but that heroic effort has been pushed way back in the memory banks. This team has determinedly ensured that.

After that game, the fears for the following campaign were very real, Connacht were not active in the market of signing new players. There appeared to be a deficit of talent in key positions and the chances of holding their seventh spot seemed difficult at best. At that point, no one could have believed that Pat Lam’s men were about to kick on to whole new level and reach the top two.

In Saturday’s 23, only one player wasn’t in Connacht’s squad at the start of last year – AJ MacGinty was signed in October after the World Cup. That’s a key stat when trying to come to terms with what the management team including Dave Ellis, Andre Bell, Jimmy Duffy and Conor McPhillips have achieved here. Big money signings don’t fix all the problems. Connacht certainly spent some money in 2014 but then said, that’s enough. Time to put the work in too.

For more, read this week’s Galway CityTribune.