They're not to be taken too seriously as championship contenders. They're only cutting their teeth in the top flight after their last-day promotion last season. Yerragh, they're from Connacht after all. Yet there Galwegians stood yesterday morning, atop the first division with the defending champions as their latest scalp. Methinks they doth protest too much?
They may be, as John Kingston maintained afterwards, playing pretty much to the summit of their abilities right now and they have undoubtedly ridden their luck, given this was a third win by less than three points. Even so they are a strong, well-balanced, well-organised and tightly-knit unit and certainly no one can question their guts after Saturday's effort at Templeville Road, for there won't be a finer defensive effort all season.
Clinging to a one-point lead after 58 minutes, playing into the teeth of a strong wind, reduced soon after to 14 men by the sinbinning of their defensive orchestrator, Eric Elwood, and having witnessed the sight of Michael Swift being stretchered off (so leading to seven minutes of injury time, though a precautionary visit to hospital revealed nothing untoward and he returned west with the team) their chances looked well and truly goosed.
However, a revealing hint of what was about to come may have been provided by the pre-match warm-ups, when the Galwegians squad went through one of the most intense and animated defensive drills you're liable to witness at any ground all season, and all without the ball as they shifted the point of defence from one imaginary breakdown to the next. It proved a template for their backs-against-the-wall efforts of the last 25 minutes or so.
Unable to even buy a line-out, admittedly they lost their defensive shape a little and St Mary's might have given their attack a bit more width, especially as the under-used John McWeeney looked custom made for the cloying conditions and a change of focus from the crash-bang-wallop trend of the exchanges - absorbing though they were.
With Elwood on the sidelines and with Trevor Brennan and Victor Costello piling on the hard yards, Eoin McCormack made a slight fumble at the base of a ruck with his backs queuing up inside the 22; a superb in-yer-face tackle by the rejuvenated Pat Duignan cut out one likely overlap and a big tackle by the influential, industrious Swift forced another big turnover before Elwood returned and the ship steadied. Somehow, Galwegians clung on, limiting the accurate McHugh (who augmented a strong running game by striking the ball superbly) to a long-range penalty and long-range drop goal attempt. "That performance today provided me with more pleasure than any achievement I've had in English rugby in 10 years as a coach," enthused Kingston afterwards, "and I've worked with Lions and international players, but the effort they put in today was beyond the call of duty. I don't think we could have given any more today."
The back-row collision alone, featuring probably the best two young opensides in the country in Shane Jennings and Johnny O'Connor, was worth the admission money and Kingston's own tackle count estimated his unstinting back-row made between 20 and 22 tackles apiece. With over 120 tackles from the pack, and only eight missed tackles and nine penalties conceded all afternoon, you need look to no other statistics save the scoreline to explain how Galwegians won.
It appeared they hadn't done quite enough with the wind but, crucially, one of several big plays by O'Connor gave the impetus for a well-used overlap and a try for one of the season's most impressive performers, Tim Allnutt. Just as crucially, after a couple of missed penalties in the opening quarter, Elwood augmented two penalties with a stunning conversion from the right touchline.
For St Mary's this was their biggest blow of the season to date. Fielding their strongest selection of the campaign and as strong a selection as they're liable to field during the Six Nations, they were very "up" for this game. It's difficult to see how they can reach such an emotional pitch again, all the more so after such an anticlimactic defeat. How they will react to it will be a big test of Brent Pope's coaching skills and, having finally achieved their holy grail last season, their players' desire as well.
Scoring sequence: 25 mins: Elwood pen 0-3; 32 mins: Allnutt try, Elwood con 0-10; 36 mins: Elwood pen 0-13; 40 mins: McHugh pen 3-13; 42 mins: McHugh pen 6-13; 47 mins: McHugh pen 913; 58 mins: McHugh pen 12-13.
ST MARY'S COLLEGE: P McKenna; B Bartley, G Gannon, M McHugh, J McWeeney; E Hekenui, E McCormack; E Byrne, P Smyth, D Clare, G Logan, D Griffin, T Brennan, V Costello, S Jennings. Replacements - P Tucker for Clare (80 mins), K Jennings for S Jennings (84 mins).
GALWEGIANS: W Ruane; G Brady, P Duignan, T Allnutt, D Rumney; E Elwood, B Shelbourne; D McFarland, P Cleary, P Bracken, D Browne, M McConnell, B Gavin, M Swift, J O'Connor. Replacements - J Casserley for Browne (67 mins), D Barfoot for Swift (76 mins), M Murphy for Brady (87 mins).
Referee: D McHugh (IRFU).
