Gerry Thornley/On Rugby: In what's been something of a grim reality check for Irish rugby in the revamped Celtic League, about the brightest light has come from the west. Forever seemingly bound to justify their mere existence, Connacht's regrouping and resurgence under Michael Bradley this season has already seen them complete an unlikely hat-trick of successes over the three Scottish districts. Hats off indeed.
Granted, Ulster's Ravenhill form has seen them hold their own in fourth place, but even that much has been beyond Munster and especially Leinster, who prop up the table as the only side with three defeats from three games. Buoyed by the attendances at last season's Heineken European Cup quarter-finals and semi-finals, Leinster are intent on moving their pool matches to Lansdowne Road this season on the premise (possibly misguided) their recently-expanded fan base is now well in excess of the capacity at Donnybrook. Hmm. And, incidentally, Leinster haven't lost a European tie at Donnybrook in four seasons.
The quasi-Leinster B team, or Leinster Cubs as they're affectionately known, had seemingly turned a corner with their Celtic Cup first-round win over the Neath-Swansea Ospreys 11 days ago, but Friday's failure to twice close out 14-point leads means the Cubs have lost all six Celtic League matches they have played without the bulk of their international team-mates. That said, the latter can be just as culpable in what seems to be a peculiarly Leinster trait.
Five seasons ago, an experienced side under Mike Ruddock chucked away an early 21-point lead when tamely losing 34-27 to Llanelli. Three seasons ago, under Matt Williams, Leinster blew an early 21-3 lead which was still 34-17 after 66 minutes in a 34-34 draw with Edinburgh which effectively cost them a place in the quarter-finals.
Edinburgh's reprieve puts Connacht's seasonal opener, their hard-earned 11-3 victory over the Scots at the Sportsground, in an even better light. Their only blemish was a 33-17 defeat away to Cardiff a week later. Since then, they've beaten the Borders in the Celtic Cup and, last Friday, Glasgow in the league; both away from home.
Considering where they came from, it's been a remarkable start to the campaign. Not alone were the province seemingly being lined up for the kill by the IRFU, but then a host of players left, as did coach Steph Nel amid rumblings of discontent in the camp. No one in Connacht doubts the sword of Damocles still hangs over them yet they are visibly growing as a team by the week, as evidenced by their best performance to date in overcoming Glasgow 30-19 on Friday to avenge a high-scoring quarter-final defeat at home two seasons ago and another in the pool stages last season.
It was a classic, smash-and-grab away win, founded on brave, organised and intelligent defence as well as solid set-pieces, especially their line-out maul, some stealthily-taken scores and the prodigious boot of Mark McHugh.
Bradley, with his laid-back manner, and the gravitas that comes with being a former Ireland captain and most capped scrumhalf, has made an impressive start, and his Australian assistant coach, John McKee, has provided some invaluable continuity from last season. Currently sixth in the table, and in the quarter-finals of the Celtic Cup, Bradley admits this "World Cup period can be an advantage to us because we don't have any players involved in the Irish set-up. We can still play our team patterns and have our key personnel available to us whereas the other sides will be without some of their key decision-makers."
Bradley also has them aiming high: "As a team we set a goal of bringing one of the three trophies back to this province. We're 125 years in existence and as of yet we haven't brought home something of significance. So that's the challenge this year."
Realistically, the Celtic Cup offered Connacht their best chance, but, alas, they couldn't have had a worse draw in the quarter-finals than Llanelli, the only unbeaten side in the Celtic League, away from home, next Friday. This is their fourth game in a row on the road, which means their first away game since that win over Edinburgh on September 6th will be against the Borders at the Sportsground on October 11th. Team manager John Fallon says Connacht's baggage master, Fergie Lynch, reckons "he'll only need two more away draws and he won't have to pay tax, he'll have been out of the country so often".
At least TG4's coverage of their last two away wins in Scotland has ensured Connacht's excellent start to the season won't have gone completely unnoticed west of the Shannon. They're also doing their utmost to reach out to the province like never before, hosting open sessions in Ballina, Sligo and last week Portumna, while 15 schools have been invited to an open day at the Sportsground on October 8th, and a similar day is being organised in Athlone before the home game with Llanelli at the end of October.
Connacht are also tapping into the club scene and rewarding good form at club level more than any of the other provinces, witness the contracting and emergence of Conor McPhilips, Dave Hewitt, Mike Walls, the Clontarf front row, and others this season. In that sense, no one is doing more to retain the link between provincial and club rugby in Ireland's pyramid structure than Connacht.
And the other provinces are benefiting with Rowen Frost and Ronnie McCormack moving to Ulster, Eoin Reddan and Jerry Flannery relocating to their native Munster after an invaluable year with Connacht, and James Norton has followed Des Dillon's prodigal route back to Leinster.
Meantime, the likes of home-grown talent such as Damien Browne and John O'Sullivan are sure to flourish this season after overcoming injury and completing an engineering degree respectively last season. Indeed, all the IRFU's power brokers should be striving to ensure Connacht flourish for ever more, for the good of rugby there and in all four provinces.
gthornley@irish-times.ie
