John Muldoon made his senior debut for Connacht in 2002 at Thomond Park in an end-of-season friendly, in what would be a rare enough outing at openside. Although he is far from unique, given he's had more opportunities than most, it rankles that he has never been part of a competitive Connacht win at the venue.

“Thomond Park has been a graveyard for Connacht rugby, absolutely no doubt,” he admitted at the Sportsground yesterday. “Would we love to win down there? Absolutely. We beat them in pre-season and I’ve beaten them a couple of times at underage level. Look, when something doesn’t happen too often you cherish those moments.”

With this in mind, he cited a first win over the Ospreys at the Liberty, which has been part of their record seven-match winning run in the League and Europe which they take into Saturday's Pro12 summit meeting.

Breaking records

“We are breaking records but we’re not really focusing on them too much. Yeah, its a good occasion and we slap each other on the back for five minutes and then we move on.”

"Russia was a great occasion, something very very different," he said of their six-day round trek to Krasnoyarsk. "It was a throw-back to the old times, and we were over there for a couple of days and we had a great time over there. But once the game was over it was move on, next game was Brive."

"But yes, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't love to win in Munster before I retire, it's one of the places where I have never won at senior level."

Connacht's record against Leinster is far better, prompting Muldoon to comment: "I think Leinster are probably sick of us at this stage. We've kind of turned them over every year. They're probably looking on thinking 'right, what can you do now in Munster?'"

Connacht go to second -placed Munster as the Pro12 leaders after seven rounds, on the back of five successive league wins, but he says Connacht are not reading too much into a formative table heavily affected by the World Cup.

“With teams getting back their internationals and us sitting on the top of the table, does it really mean we’re a top of the table side at the moment? That’s yet to be decided.

“There’s a lot of pressure on Munster with us coming down. There’s a lot of pressure on us to show are we the real deal or are we getting better every year. We believe we’re getting better. We believe we can put it up to any team but at the same time we’ve got to put our hands up and say we’re top of the table during the World Cup, and we’re not stepping ahead of ourselves or anything.”

Beat anyone

“It’s a case of doing the things right that we do, and over the last couple of months and over the last , when we get it right we can beat anyone. . .”

“And I think that’s the real mental change a psychological change that we’ve had over the last couple of years. When someone asks the question what has Pat brought to us and what changes has there been in the last two years, I think obviously a coach coming it takes a while for him to bed in and get what he wants. There hasn’t been an awful big change around the season, just a couple of lads coming in and a lot of young lads coming up but they’ve been bled into the system over the last 18 months to two years and they know what’s expected now. It’s not left to one or two individuals to get on top of them, so there’s a good leadership group growing there as well.”

Muldoon agrees that even he has been distracted by the individual battles and showdowns which come with derbies. “You think ‘it’s a derby game, I’m up against someone who has my international place’. Or ‘this is a great position for me to show my wares in front of the Irish coaches,’ etc etc. But if you start thinking single-mindedly, we’re going to be in a bit of trouble. Everyone has a role, everyone has a job to do within that system.”

Calming team-mates down will be part of his remit, and of other leadership figures.

Reflecting on that debut as a youngster, Muldoon said: “I don’t think it’s counted. It was a friendly game. I think I was 19, and I played at seven. I had abs back then, good thing this jersey was brought out,” he said at the launch of new ‘Green Lantern jersey’ which Connacht will wear on Saturday, and which is exclusive to Lifestyle.  “That was a long time ago.”