Heineken Cup Round 3Toulouse 14 - Connacht 16
By Rob Murphy at the Stade Ernest-Wallon
You march and you trudge and you stop and you go again. You rest and you despair and you complain and you go again. You dream and you criticise and you forget and you go again. All for days like this. To win just once.
Here we are. All of Europe is talking about a rugby team from the west of Ireland. A rugby team that doesn't always get it right, doesn't always deliver the perfect game but always manages to relocate the compass when they have veered off path and constantly drags us out of our corners and makes us mighty proud to be from Connacht.
Let's not hold back, let's ignore bigger pictures and future obstacles and let's just contemplate what has been achieved this weekend by a small rugby region producing a phenomenally disproportionate number of young players on a budget that is monumentally dwarfed by Europe's elite teams.
Biblical historians will tell you that the David versus Goliath tale is a bit of a misnomer, that in ancient times, a marksman like David would have practiced that sling shot thousands of times. They'll argue that David's diminutive stature belied a deadly skill and that Goliath would have won most of his previous battles on reputation alone, Goliath in a sense, was nothing more than a freakish giant, immobile and short on ideas.
Toulouse, are a giant in this competition and while they are hardly immobile, they were very much short on ideas here. They had no way of knowing this beforehand but they didn't stand a chance on Sunday. It was only in the final 15 minutes that they realised what they were up against. Up until that point, the thought they were staring at a brave underdog that, in their minds, would surely wilt at some late juncture.
The story begins with the 65th minute restart after Toulouse’s second try and conversion. The score was 16-14 to Connacht, how they had got here was now irrelevant. The inclination for most Irish teams in such a scenario is to stop and contemplate, which is usually where the reputable opponents pounce. But Connacht under Pat Lam are all about the processes and they refused to pause in this situation. For the caldron that they were in, it was the perfect response.
They won possession from that restart and Toulouse didn’t get meaningful ball inside the Connacht half for the rest of the game. The home team spent the next five minutes frantically defending wave upon wave of attacks. They sighed in relief as Parks just missed on a drop goal and dropped a long range penalty short and they cranked up the engines for one last surge, when the ball was turned over late in the contest.
That surge lasted for four minutes. It bore all the hallmarks of past heartbreaks for Connacht and Irish sides. Toulouse probed, switched and charged. Louis Picamoles, Thierry Dusautoir, Yoann Maestri and Census Johnson took it upon themselves to save the day, they barely got over the halfway line.
The day started for the Connacht team on the large square in the centre of Toulouse outside the Capitole. The only area outside their hotel for them to do a lineout practice and walk through. Hundreds of locals watched and took pictures of this Irish team looking relaxed and loose before the almighty battle ahead. It set a tone.
By kick off, Dan Parks was worried, he felt the warm up had been a bit sluggish. The first shots in anger came from Toulouse. Top scorer, and former All Black Hosea Gear, burst clear and almost scored. The signs weren’t great but the mood soon changed.
By the end of the first quarter Connacht led 6-0. Parks kicked a penalty from half way and added a drop goal after a hair raising breaking involving some brilliance from Eoin Griffin and Matt Healy. The travelling Connacht support were on their feet, the home band was taking longer breaks between each song.
Toulouse toiled and harried and nipped in for a try on the stroke of halftime. It was a gift. A mistake from Connacht captain Craig Clarke that he would more than make amends for, but the home side now led and for all the world, normal services seemed to be resumed.
However, this refusal to contemplate, to consider and over think scenarios is Connacht’s greatest asset. The third quarter belonged to the westerners, they attacked with gusto after half time. The support lines were stunning. George Naoupu charged forward and almost scored, he probably should have offloaded but a penalty followed and Parks slotted it for a 9-7 lead.
Then came the try, and what a try. Eoin McKeon was just off the bench, he controlled superbly at the base of the scrum, fed Kieran Marmion, Robbie Henshaw broke down field, offloaded spectacularly to Fionn Carr who was stopped short before Marmion scurried over the line. Parks kicked the touchline conversion for a nine point lead.
It should have been 16 points when Robbie Henshaw scored a spectacular breakout try involving great work from Gavin Duffy and Kieran Marmion but the infuriatingly inconsistent TMO laws saw the play brought back for a non existent knockon. That shifted the momentum and Toulouse soon scored but the relief from the home fans was misplaced.
On the full time whistle, ‘all heaven broke loose’ as the great Con Houlihan once said. The enormous work rate of the likes of John Muldoon (21 tackles), Clarke (18 tackles) and Jake Heenan (14 tackles) and the lesser spotted work of Dave McSharry, Mick Kearney and Brett Wilkinson who toiled brilliantly, will never be forgotten.
It all concluded with a Connacht team being roared into Toulouse Airport later that Sunday night by the fans who were sharing their flight home. The weary local travellers were perplexed and grudgingly amused by the momentary break from silence.
They didn’t have airports in David’s days back in the Valley of Elah. Then again, they didn’t have back to back fixtures with the same opponents either. Goliath is still alive, and he’ll be on a plane heading west next Saturday, somewhat better prepared for things. You go again.
Toulouse: C Poitrenaud; Y Huget, F Fritz, Y David, H Gear; J P Barraque, J Vermaak; G Steenkamp, C Ralepelle, C Johnston; E Maka, Y Maestri; Y Camara, T Dusautoir, L Picamoles.
Replacements: L Beauxis for Barraque (53 mins), S Ferreira for Vermaak (48 mins), R Millo-Chluski for Steenkamp (48 mins), J Bregvadze for Ralepelle (74 mins), Y Montes for Johnston (74 mins), J M Doussain for Maka (48 mins), C Tolofua for Camara (45 mins).
Connacht: R Henshaw; F Carr, E. Griffin, D McSharry, M Healy; D Parks, K Marmion; B Wilkinson, S Henry, K White; M Kearney, C Clarke; J Muldoon, J Heenan, G Naoupu.
Replacements: M Ronaldson for Henshaw (74 mins), G Duffy for Healy (53 mins), F. Murphy for Marmion (69 mins), D Buckley for Wilkinson (59 mins), R Ah You for White (59 mins), M Swift for Kearney (59 mins), McKeon for Naoupu (46 mins); J Harris Wright for Henry (47 mins).
Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy).
Rob Murphy covers Connacht rugby for the Connacht Tribune and Sentinel, Galway Bay FM and is the creator of KnockON.ie.
