On a summer evening, not too hot for a game of rugby but still warm and pleasant, a large crowd gathered to watch local team Connacht play the visitors. To be more precise, an average crowd was boosted by a huge contingent of teenage girls who were there only to see a certain Jonny Wilkinson.

The Wilkinson roadshow dominated the fixture with a total over-representation by the media from around the world. The Sports Ground is actually a greyhound race track, and the facilities for rugby supporters are pretty basic. So that the little Monkey could see, we ended up at the perimeter by the home dugout. In front of us were photographers aplenty, rarely focused on anything but Jonny. They would have been well advised to pay some attention to Mathew Tait, and to recording the 150^th provincial cap by fly half Eric Elwood.

So to the game itself and what does it tell us about the coming season? Well for a start, the warm up routines are much more entertaining, involving a peculiar dance that had the locals in stitches, no doubt the handiwork of Blackie.

The first half started with both sides testing each other to little effect. A penalty in the 7^th minute allowed Wilkinson to put his first points on the board for many months, the Falcons conceding 3 penalties to allow Elwood the show that he can kick too, trailing 9-3 at the whistle. Apart from those 4 incidents, the entire 1^st half did little more than allow both teams to regain the feel of playing competitively again. The Falcon's new water carrier, a certain Epi Taione, kept his baseball cap firmly in place for the duration so his state of hair remains uncertain.

The 2^nd half kicked off with Wilko on the bench and more substitutions than you would normally see in an entire season. At one point the Falcons boasted two number 7s on the pitch.

Withing the 1^st minute, Grimes hammered down the first try to a stunned silence. The reaction of the crowd was so strange and the ref so economical with his signals that it was only when Walder kicked the conversion over that I was sure it was down. The Falcons were ahead 9-10, all missed by the photographers who were zoomed onto Jonny on the bench.

The next try was not long in coming, well it was as it was Long who scored when the Connacht defense could not keep up with the flow of the Falcon's attack. Walder missed a straightforward conversion with a rushed kick. He took more care over a penalty a few minutes later to put the score at a 9-18.

Long got his 2^nd try down and Walder converted to bring the score to a comfortable 9-25 with only 5 minutes to go.

The final points came from an astonishing try by Mathew Tait, faster than a gazelle and evading all attempts by the Connacht defense to stop him, ending up so far ahead of his pursuers that he could place it well for Walder to convert and bring the final score to 9-32.

The notable features of the game were the length, speed and accuracy of the Falcons' passing, the sheer momentum of Charvis with the ball, and young Master Tait who will fearlessly tackle anything and everything with phenomenal speed and commitment.

It is too early to make any useful comment about how things are shaping up for next season. These games are intended to show up weaknesses that do not appear in training, and to learn from them afterwards. After the game, Luke Gross commented that there is still a lot of work to do before September 5^th, but that is what the intensive training is all about.

At least Jonny had the last laugh by giving the post match press conference a miss and training on the pitch in full view of the journos in their hot & sweaty press room. 

Monkey1 & the little Monkey.

Dublin

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