Magnificent Connacht leave French men out on their feet

Connacht 23

Toulouse 21

THE rusty form of September is in the rear view mirror and Connacht are clicking through the gears and powering forward. In a pulsating Saturday evening clash at a heaving and sold-out Sportsground, the Westerners came from ten points down in the second half to win a game that might have done more to redefine their status in European rugby than last May’s Pro12 triumph.

The third consecutive home win in as many weeks was a seismic one for sure but ironically, in hindsight, probably not the most significant of the three. Toulouse are a big powerful side with none of the finesse that we have come to admire over the last three decades of European competition whereas the Ulster side that came here last week offered a lot more of an all round game and were simply harder to beat. Yet this certainly was more significant.

Significant because here was the epitome of what is going wrong with Top 14 rugby. Bish, bash bosh is all we see from most French and English clubs these days. Their national teams aren’t much better and all the while the New Zealanders are pulling further and further away with a new brand of the game focused more and more on the skills. While Europe insists on picking big men and running hard straight lines, all of New Zealand laugh.

There have to be some limits in what Connacht can achieve as they shun the Northern Hemisphere trends and go the route of a high tempo attacking brand of rugby that sees all risks with ball in hand as opportunities to unearth space and unlock defences. Almost every side Connacht meet, knows what they are going to get, the days of underestimating Pat Lam’s men are done but that doesn’t seem to matter. That’s what is mesmerising.

If there is a bigger scrum in the Champions Cup than Toulouse this season, it will be a sight to see. The game was billed as big men versus fast runners and it lived up to it in every way. Yet by the end, the big men were out on their feet after failing to contain the electric Connacht backline and being out foxed by the home pack. It was a sight for sore eyes for sure.

You don’t want running rugby to always beat a forward orientated game. Rugby is about balance and there’s nothing wrong with going for power and set piece dominance as a route to victory. However, if that’s your only trick in the bag, then there is everything wrong with that approach and the biggest, most powerful side in European rugby lost to a team at the weekend with a fraction of their budget and nothing like their history. They got schooled in fact.

When Toulouse centre Florian Fritz kicked their third penalty on 13 minutes to add to two scores from Sebastien Bezy the signs weren’t good for Connacht. They had barely touched the ball, the penalties had all come from scrums and the prospect of any reprieve in that area seemed non existent. Yet besides that, Toulouse hadn’t offered any other attacking threat and were coughing up lineouts for fun.

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