Nose-bleed territory, as John Muldoon described Connacht's atypical perch atop the Pro12 table before they hosted Saturday's summit meeting with Leinster. Well, far from showing any signs of vertigo in this more rarefied air, Connacht continue to fly high.
Saturday’s hard-earned win cemented their first place, sending the vast majority of a 7,300 capacity crowd into the Galway night air dreaming of more historic peaks to scale.
Comparisons with Leicester in the English Premier League are inevitable. Never having finished higher than seventh before, Connacht started the season at odds to 33/1 to finish in first place and 50/1 to lift the Pro12 trophy.
Akin to Claudio Ranieri when reiterating their base target of avoiding relegation, Pat Lam has continued to stress that the start-of-season target of a top-six finish and automatic qualification remains their primary goal, but they've raised their own and their fans' expectations now.
Edinburgh’s 16-15 win away to the Dragons yesterday pushed them up to seventh, but they are 16 points adrift of Connacht so Lam’s base target has been virtually achieved. A dozen points clear of Ulster and Glasgow in fifth and sixth gives Connacht a real shot at earning an historic playoff place. With a six-point lead over third-placed Scarlets, the aim must now be a home semi-final.
Another record
“Everyone knows that ultimately that’s where everyone’s fate lies, in [finishing] one or two,” admitted Lam. “One is nice but the final’s in Murrayfield and history has shown that one or two have won it. Now, if we finish three or four, there’s another record to break.”
But he added: “I don’t want us reliant on our home ground, I want us reliant on the work we do so that we can play anywhere.
“That was a big win but as John [Muldoon] said afterwards in the changing-room, there’s no point in winning this if we lose next week. So now, again, we can park that. We beat Munster away and we’ve got them coming. The interpros mean a lot to the boys, and the one team we haven’t beaten since I’ve been here is Ulster, so it will be a big week and we’ll put a lot of work into trying to beat them.”
Connacht are disadvantaged by having only a six-day turnaround before facing Ulster at Ravenhill, where they haven’t won since 1960. And they have only beaten Ulster once in the last 18 meetings dating back to 2005.
However, far from being weighed down by history, Lam’s re-invented Connacht embrace it, with an eye on creating their own.
“Now we’ve got a tough challenge, six days’ turnaround to a pretty physical, fired-up Ulster, who are desperate. And that’s probably what’s pleased me most. In the last six games that we’ve won, for all of the teams that we’ve played, it’s not a normal game. Their season is on the line too.
“Leinster rolled out some massive, massive individuals, and they are desperate to get the points. And for our boys to win that as a team is tremendous.”
Unhelpfully, outhalf AJ McGinty has seemingly joined Jack Carty and Craig Ronaldson on their casualty list. "AJ, looks like a shoulder, and if AJ is not available that's three of our main 10s gone now. But we just have to re-adjust.
“It will be a lighter week obviously. It will just be around clarity and making sure the guys are clear in how we can beat Ulster.”
As was the case when winning the corresponding game 10-9 last season here, Kieron Marmion was the game’s sole try scorer; the product of a trademark Tiernan O’Halloran counter-attack which saw Connacht go through four phases and 15 passes and go wide to both touchlines before the scrumhalf won the race to Niyi Adeolokun’s kick ahead.
Alter your mindset
“The boys know that I cannot stand running straight into people. They know I’ve prepped us to have options. I wasn’t a big back-rower and the last thing I ever did was run straight into somebody. Of course, sometimes you have to, but you need to ask questions of the ‘D’, and that’s what I said. ‘Fellas, alter your mindset. Do not hold back. If it’s on, move the pass.’ And there’s a lot of work that all of us coaches do. Yeah, Kieron [Marmion] got the try, fantastic work, but there’s a lot of effort gone into it.”
A second defeat in succession has rather taken the wind out of Leinster’s sails after a run of 10 wins in 11 games had seemingly set them firmly on course to top the regular season table and thus secure a home semi-final without undue bother.
Yet Leo Cullen remained calmly confident in the fallout of this setback, with Saturday's mouth-watering face-off with Munster at the Aviva Stadium looming. "We will turn the page quickly now and look at Munster, they were very impressive in their win against Zebre in reasonably tricky conditions," said Cullen.
Run-in
Leinster retain a two-point lead over the third-placed Scarlets, and thus still have a home semi-final in their own hands, with a run-in of Munster and Edinburgh at home, Ulster away and Treviso at home. “We have four games left, three at home and if we win four we will be in the top two. That is the way I am looking at it. It’s reasonably simple. Win the next game is the focus, prepare as well as possible to win the next game and we won’t look any further than that.”
Cullen, who confirmed that Johnny Sexton will be back this week, may have been masking his true feelings to a degree, although he admitted this defeat has raised the stakes for their meeting with Munster. "It cranks it up. These games are going to be no-holds-barred, very physical encounters."
