Time for Connacht to throw caution to the wind

Date Published: {J}

THESE are dog days at the Sportsground. A ninth consecutive defeat has left all involved with Connacht rugby feeling bruised and tender. It’s not the hole where Eric Elwood had anticipated his squad would end up at this stage of the season. This grim situation is killing them all – from Chief Executive Gerry Kelly down – but they are simply going to have tough it out.

The last thing Connacht need now is sympathy and platitudes. Eric Elwood, Gavin Duffy and all the rest of them are here to win. Losing hurts them badly despite the manner in which the dice is loaded against the men from the West. Nobody knows it better than them that the lack of budget and resources continued to screw the squad on the field, but they have no desire to hide behind those ready-made excuses for the province’s current woes.

The reality is that Connacht have been losing matches that they had chances to win and while it might be stretching things to suggest last Saturday’s Heineken Cup encounter against Gloucester was another one of those occasions, the home team had serious momentum early in the second back when pulling back an 11-nil deficit to one point, but once again they failed to drive on and were unable to close the deal.

Another big crowd of over 5,000 turned up at the Sportsground and though Connacht were once again admirably competitive, some typically poor decision-making – notably, Niall O’Connor’s baffling decision to opt for a garryowen in the last play of the game – and unforced errors continue to haunt them. It was a match that they had targeted, but Gloucester were the stronger outfit and had the possession and territory to prove it.

O’Connor’s early penalty miss from a relatively routine penalty wouldn’t have helped Connacht’s brittle confidence as the struggling English Premiership outfit established an 11-nil advantage by the 31st minute thanks to two Freddie Burns penalty and a close range try from James Simpson-Daniel. Connacht were in a bad place, but directly from the kick-off, Duffy pounced on a loose ball in midfield – the product of Ray Ofisa’s work in dispossessing Luke Narraway – for an opportunist try, converted by O’Connor.

When the Connacht out half reduced the deficit to the minimum soon after the resumption, the momentum was firmly with Elwood’s squad, but they just didn’t have the cutting edge to rattle Harlequins even more. Instead, the visitors gradually regained control of the exchanges, with Burns adding a third penalty, and spending virtually the last ten minutes deep inside the Connacht 22. In fact, they closed out the game with relative ease.

With the return Heineken Cup leg coming up on Saturday, followed by daunting Rabo Direct Pro 12 encounters against Leinster and Munster, there is no respite for Connacht in the short term. They looked a battle weary outfit by the close of the Gloucester match, while morale and confidence must be at seasonal low now. It’s an awful predicament and injuries aren’t helping either – they could have done with Michael Swift’s grunt and Johnny O’Connor’s tenacity at the weekend.

Yet, there is nothing to be served by the Connacht camp beating themselves up. They have to stick together, plough on and, hope, some day, the breaks will go in their favour. One thing for sure, this squad are no quitters and the bottom line is that they still have a chance of making history at Kingsholm this weekend by chalking up a first ever Heineken Cup victory.

Nobody will give them a chance but, if anything, the public mood should inspire rather than deflate them. It’s time for the underdogs to throw caution to the wind, especially in a fixture which most sees the outcome of as already a done deal. The Connacht players, however, must embrace the build up to the match in a positive light – the prospect of breaking new ground, rather than going out to avoid a tenth consecutive defeat.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.