Connacht 6
Ulster 30

Rob Murphy at the Sportsground

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Every once in a while a little respite descends on the west, a victory out of nowhere brings a halt to the bombardment and Connacht fans dare to dream. They slowly lift their heads above ground for a few brief seconds and think, maybe, this time it’s different. It just never is though and on Friday they were walloped once more.

Caption: Isac Boss in control. Pic: Sporting Occasions

Ulster came, saw, laughed in the face of a disorganised mess and returned with a handy bonus point in the bag and tales of a stroll in the park for the folks back home. Yet another no show from Connacht in a crunch tie, the nation took note last week after the victory over Cardiff and are shaking their head in a rueful manner this week. Same old story, same old story.

The crunch derby games aren’t the match ups with Munster and Leinster they are these games against their nearest rivals Ulster and time and time again Connacht fail to show up in this fixture. Often, as was the case on Friday, the team appear under-motivated for the fight and not clued in. The game plan seems beyond them and the simple heads up rugby is non existent.

Connacht were in this fight at half time, thanks mainly to some wasteful attacks from Ulster, a bit of heroic defending from the pack and small bit of indiscipline from the away side at the breakdown. It was 7-6 but the whole contest had a flat feel to it.

In the second half the suspicion that Connacht would collapse bore fruit within seconds, as the kick off was botched and three phases later Brendan Botha crashed over. He is a South African international with immense ability and those who defend the current team and argue that this was another night where they did their best with the resources they have, will point to the excuse that the westerner just can’t purchase talent like Botha.

But this one isn’t about budgets, it would be had Connacht lost 30-25 and maintained the momentum from last weekend. They didn’t, they didn’t even come close to their best on the biggest day of the entire season and 2,415 fans, many of whom were waiting to be convinced, left dejected and resigned to another season at the foot of the table.

Ulster cruised to victory after that score, Connacht teams don’t often come back from sucker punches and Ian Humphries pinned them back into the corners for 35 more minutes, allowing for two more tries to be scored. The ignominy of a bonus point wrapped up in a bow merely rubbed salt in the home teams wounds.

This was meant to be the night where all that talk of ‘improved training regimes’, a ’stronger attitude’ and an ‘influx of better players’ would be clear for all to see. This was where they would finally demonstrate an ability to put two half decent performances back to back. Michael Bradley had pin-pointed as a defining match from the outset of the campaign. The performance never transpired. And right now, this week, every rugby fan in Connacht is crestfallen. Asking themselves why they bother?

Lets note that the first try was scored by Darren Cave after a succession of miss tackles and shambolic defensive disorganization in the opening five minutes. The second came from Botha and those last two came from Nagusa and Humphries late on. That’s the bare facts done and dusted and gives us a chance to hone in on some brief moments that encapsulate the Connacht tale.

Midway through the first half, Ulster led 7-3 and had a kickable penalty. They arrogantly shunned it and went to the corner. A five metre lineout and maul was then repelled brilliantly by the Connacht pack and the crowd erupted to greet this huge moment.

Fast forward ten minutes and Connacht have a lineout in the Ulster 22, instead of taking the obvious opportunity to test out that Ulster pack once more, inexplicably they tap off the top and go to the backline. The move is comically botched and the chance gone. Madness.

In the old days the likes of Eoin Reddan at scrum half would be cut loose on opponents and could just make his own calls from phase to phase, the forwards ruled the roost and the big budget opponents found Connacht a menace and a bloody hassle to play, not a push over.

Reddan wouldn’t get picked for this team because he wouldn’t stick to the game plan, Conor O’Loughlin is his clone in the current squad.

Is it really all simply down to budgets? Honestly, are we to believe that the team Michael Bradley had in 2004 was closer to the big sides in resources than this, that the gap between the hads and had nots in 1998 under Gatland was honestly a lot less. We had semi pros and amateurs back then and we toppled Northampton. Don’t be fooled.

Expectation levels will always be low and qualified in the west because Connacht fans understand the realities of big budgets. However, it is not, and never will be too much for them to expect their players to produce the best of their abilities week in week out over the course of their season and Friday was yet another example where that simply did not happen. The season is dead before October.

Connacht: G Duffy; B Tuohy, T Nathan, K Matthews, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, J Hagan; A Browne, B Upton; J Muldoon, R Ofisa, M McComish.
Replacements: M McCarthy for McComish, 54 mins; J O’Connor for Ofisa, 54 mins; L Bibo for Tuohy, 59 mins; R Morris for Hagan, 59 mins; C O’Loughlin for Murphy, 59 mins; A Wynne, 59 mins.

Ulster: C Schifcofske; T Nagusa, D Cave, P Wallace, S Danielli; I Humphreys, I Boss; T Court, A Kyriacou, B Botha; D Tuohy, E O’Donoghue; C Henry, W Faloon, R Diack.
Replacements: A Trimble for Danielli, 31 mins; T Anderson for Henry, 65 mins; D Fitzpatrick for Botha, 65 mins; N Brady for Kyriacou, 72 mins; P Marshall for Boss, 77 mins; I Whitten for Wallace, 77 mins; N McComb for O’Donoghue, 77 mins.

Referee: G Clancy (IRFU).