At least Connacht are at sea level in Cape Town for their URC semi-final against the Stormers on Saturday but they are still in rarefied air. Since their Pro 12 title success in 2016, Connacht have reached the knock-out stages of a competition seven times, but this is their first semi-final since those heady days.
Hence, it’s not stretching things to suggest that this semi-final against the reigning champions at Cape Town Stadium (kick-off 4pm local time/3pm Irish time, live on TG4 and Premier Sports) is Connacht’s biggest game since beating Leinster in that 2016 final in Murrayfield.
“It’s a massive game and a huge occasion,” says scrumhalf Caolin Blade, noting that Connacht’s previous South African trek to face the Stormers was in Stellenbosch, when beaten 38-15 last September.
“There’s going to be a huge crowd there in an unreal stadium which was built for the football World Cup, so it’s really exciting.”
While the Stormers are an imposing prospect – winning 22 of their last 23 URC/Champions Cup games at home – Connacht have won eight of their last 11 matches, including six out of their last seven in the URC.
“We had a good run up to the quarter-final and then a good win, but we were probably still a little bit disappointed after the match in our performance,” says Blade of their 15-10 quarter-final win away to Ulster last week, when leaving several try-scoring chances behind.
Last week was my first start in a knock-out game, which was huge for me. But I don’t want Saturday to be the last start of the season either. I want to push on and play in a final
It’s also the biggest game of Blade’s Connacht career. He played 11 times in that 2015-16 Pro 12 campaign, but was the third scrumhalf behind Kieran Marmion and John Cooney when doing the warm-up for the final.
“It was definitely the best day I’ve been involved in, in my life – an incredible atmosphere and coming home to Knock and fires at 2am all the way down to Galway.
“I’m from a GAA background so I was kind of used to it but some of the lads couldn’t understand why people were lighting fires.
“This time around, it’s a little bit different. Not that I wasn’t part of it back then, but I’m playing in more games, so I suppose I want to etch my little mark in history.”
This will be his 15th start of the season, eclipsing his 14 in the Covid-curtailed 2020-21 campaign, and by some distance his most prolific, with 11 tries so far.
“Kieran is still there and you could see the impact he had the last day as well,” Blade says in reference to Marmion’s match-winning break in Belfast.
“Last week was my first start in a knock-out game, which was huge for me. But I don’t want Saturday to be the last start of the season either. I want to push on and play in a final.”
Blade is one of six indigenous Connacht players from last week’s starting XV, with another dozen in the wider squad. But although he grew up in Monivea, and played Gaelic football and hurling with Monivea Abbey and Abbeyknockmoy, his father Pat, an outhalf, and his older brothers Darren and Eoin, played rugby for Monivea, where he started with the minis at the age of six.
Darren coached Blade until he was 18, before all three played together on the Monivea junior team, while Eoin is back playing GAA. Blade has also assisted Darren in coaching the Monivea team. As the youngest of six, also behind Rosanna, Jennifer and Emma, this meant a fair amount of taxiing for their mother Therese.
“Sports mad,” by his own admission, Blade also played football for three years with St Bernard’s, and emulated his uncle Damian, who was a boxer, and Darren, who won three All-Ireland underage titles, in trying his hand at that too.
“I was playing rugby as well so I was quite short and heavy, and any boxer I fought was quite taller than me,” he recalls with a rueful chuckle. “I was asked to lose a few kilos so I had to call it a day.”
Blade played on a good Monivea side, which earned him a shot at the Connacht underage sides.
There’s still always room for improvement; consistency of passing and kicking, and just feel for the game, and players around you and opposition players
“Funnily enough, I’d played outhalf until I was asked to move in, and I did so reluctantly. I remember we played Leinster at home for the Connacht Under-18 club side and that was my first game at scrumhalf.”
That led to a spot in the sub-academy, the Connacht Under-19s (winning the interpros) and Under-20s. Not being picked for the Irish Under-20s in the 2014 World Cup was a “silver lining”, as it fast-tracked his Connacht debut away to the Ospreys that May and also a full pre-season.
All along Nigel Carolan, his Connacht academy manager, Connacht Eagles coach and then Connacht backs coach, has been a huge influence, and they still talk regularly.
“He showed me the ropes as a professional rugby player, and he did it in a way that resonated with me. He gave you confidence but laid down the law and showed you what was what at times.”
Another turning point was his first Connacht start, in a Challenge Cup game away to Bayonne in December 2014, when Carolan and Pat Lam gave him the distinct impression that it would be key in earning him a promotion to a full contract.
Lam made 15 changes and Blade scored two cracking tries, including the 78th match-winner.
“They brought me in afterwards and said: ‘Don’t sit on this game for two years. You’ve earned this but you still have to improve massively’, which I knew I needed to do.”
Now 29, he’s proud of where he’s come from and where he’s reached, if acknowledging: “I need to get better but the room for growth is still there.”
While the running game has always come naturally, “there’s still always room for improvement; consistency of passing and kicking, and just feel for the game, and players around you and opposition players.”
His first Ireland cap came against the USA in July 2021, when a post-lockdown, restricted attendance of 6,000 at least meant his parents and siblings could be in attendance.”
“A huge day, but it also leaves you wanting more.”
Personally, it [the World Cup] is a huge target and I’ll do everything I can to be there
Seemingly fourth in the Irish pecking order, when Jamison Gibson-Park was ruled out of the Six Nations opener in Wales, Blade was brought in as cover for the French and Italian games and as much as any player, he lauds the culture in the Irish set-up.
“It’s a great place to be. You’re told to be yourself and express yourself, and any coach who drives that is going to generate a good environment, and you can see the rewards.”
He notes the “big summer coming ahead” and adds: “Personally, it [the World Cup] is a huge target and I’ll do everything I can to be there.”
A rising tide lift all boats and were Connacht to further surprise all outside the province by reaching the final, it would afford him and others another chance to showcase their abilities.
But most of all, Saturday is about reaching a second final in the province’s history. The challenge is huge, but so too the prize and since the quarter-final Blade has been struck by the warmth of wellwishers and pride in the team.
“One of our main goals is to inspire the people of Connacht, not just the rugby community but every sport. It doesn’t have to be sport, just every part of the province. That’s a little bit of weight on our shoulders but I was there in 2016 for the open-top bus and I’d love for that to happen again.”
