Milestone day as Connacht men go top of league table

Connacht 33

Treviso  19

TAKE a moment, enjoy it, Connacht are top of the Pro12 table after seven rounds and gearing up for a trip to Thomond Park in round eight later this month to face second placed Munster in a seismic fixture. Friday’s nervy three try 14 point victory over an improving Benetton Treviso side helped Pat Lam’s men leapfrog the Scarlets and has turned heads around Europe.

If you only go to one Connacht away game this season, then Limerick on November 28 is the time for it. No venue has proven to be more intimidating and no opposition more challenging for the westerners in the professional era. They’ll need everything on their side, but they’ll go there with a shot at making monumental statement.

A position at the top of the table is great but the real battle is only beginning. Connacht had an opportunity to steal an edge early on this season in their bid to make some major progress and they’ve grasped it. They’ve got a seat at the table now and it is a whole new ball game from here on.

First, they need to take stock, rest some walking wounded assess their overall position and not dismiss two weeks of European action too readily either. They won’t, they haven’t before under Lam and they won’t now. He’ll rotate for sure and manage the workload with the phenomenal five day 7,000 kilometre Russia trip taking over all plans for a few days, but he’ll go out to win both games against Enisei and Brive.

Momentum is key and a defeat in either game (even on Saturday at 8am Irish time in Krasnoyarsk where extenuating circumstances prevail such as -12 temperatures) will be a blow to that and Connacht will target progress in the Challenge Cup again this season, but the Munster game is now an incredibly important fixture. Hardly a must win but very much an exciting opportunity.

Look at last season, it was such a mixed bag for sure but progress was made. The end result was a failure to progress to the European Cup but in the most heroic of circumstances. An extra time loss to Gloucester after a display that underlined how far this team has come. Victories over Munster and Leinster backed that up earlier in the campaign, but three successive home defeats to Ulster, Glasgow and the Ospreys showed how far they had to go too.

Nothing that has transpired so far this season can answer the question of whether this team are ready to bridge the gap to the top sides in the league. Friday’s victory at a dry and breezy night in the Sportsground illustrated the incremental improvements, but also highlighted some worry defensive frailties that are making it more difficult to put games to bed sooner.

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