Connacht ... 0 Pontypridd ... 40 Sorry folks, can we do this again next week? Primed by Connacht's five successive wins, a sun-kissed crowd of up to 3,000, perhaps the biggest ever at the Sportsground for a competitive game, had turned up in heady expectation.
But as anti-climaxes go this one will take some beating.
Forty-zip. Alas, the scoreline didn't even tell the slightest of white lies. Pontypridd were good, damned good, and Connacht, as the saying goes, were lucky to get zip. How it unfolded in quite this lop-sided way - the bookies had Connacht two-point favourites - took some explaining, but not even a stunned Steph Nel was inclined to shed too much light.
"A very, very bad day at the office," he said. "They're a class side, I knew it from the word go. We just couldn't get any of our starter moves going, they swamped us, and nothing happened for us, not a bounce of the ball or a drop goal or anything."
Connacht, as game an outfit as any Irish rugby has put on the pitch this season, didn't even make a game of it, and the 300 strong Pontypridd contingent were far more vocal. Most probably there were a host of factors at work, both mental and technical.
Not even this ultra-spirited Connacht team could go on garnering one-point wins forever, and the psychological effort in winning three Celtic League games by a point, another by six and the other by dint of an injury-time drop goal, had to take a toll. Connacht went to the well but the well had run dry.
Furthermore, they had already achieved their primary objective of qualifying for the quarter-finals. To a degree they had already proven themselves this season. They had started the day as pool leaders and perhaps contracted a mild case of vertigo.
Pontypridd had focused much of their warm-up on a highly vocal and choreographed defensive line that looked more like a dance routine than a rugby drill. As it transpired, Connacht were scarcely more penetrating than their visitors' ghosted pre-match opposition. Looking utterly one-dimensional as they launched target runners close-in, Connacht never even broke the first line of defence much less threatened the try-line.
It should be said that Connacht were missing many of their big guns. And Nel cannot be accused of flogging a dead horse, because he has rotated his squad, and sought to regenerate his pack again here with four changes up front.
Unfortunately, Warwick Waugh's return from injury co-incided with a popped shoulder in the first-half and the inspirational Wallaby didn't re-appear for the second period.
Injuries to Gavin Duffy and Johnny O'Connor, had again left Connacht without their tyros, and the absence of a genuine openside was exploited to the full by Pontypridd, who ruled the roost at the breakdown.
Injuries to their regular midfield pairing of Tim Allnutt and Darren Yapp forced Nel to go with Shane Moore and Dermot O'Sullivan. The Connacht coach might privately wonder if he should have pushed the in-form Mark McHugh into inside centre and released James Norton from the start at full back.
By the time Norton came in and McHugh went to outhalf, the game was long since up, and not even the exuberant running of Norton could make much difference. Finally given a chance with Connacht after two seasons of rejection and frustration with the Irish under-21s and Leinster, the hungry Norton has been a real weapon in his cameos.
One of the ripple effects of the new, inexperienced midfield was that - like a centre-half who has no confidence in his goalkeeper - Eric Elwood had the additional responsibility of feeling he had to nurse the the nervous-looking Moore-O'Sullivan axis. Vintage Elwood in the five wins to date, here the load was too much and his own game suffered.
This will have eroded much of the confidence generated by their preceding run, and Connacht will have to pick themselves up now.
"The long and the short of it is that it happens to all professional teams," said Nel. "You will lose at some stage and it's how you get from this that counts. But I know the boys, and they'll be up next week."
Unfortunately, it looks like Waugh will be out for a while, but Darren Yapp might be back, while Johnny O'Connor and Gavin Duffy were due to return with Galwegians yesterday.
And perhaps a change in competition and a trip to Mont de Marsan in the Parker Pen Shield next week will re-invigorate them; that a change of scenery will be as good a rest.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 29 mins: Jenkins pen 0-3; 34: Wyatt try 0-8; 37: Bryant try, Jenkins con 0-15; (half-time 0-15); 43: Jenkins pen 0-18; 45: Lewis try 0-23; 49: Wyatt try, Jenkins con 0-30; 62: Owen try, Jenkins con 0-37; 72: Davey drop goal 0-40.
CONNACHT: M McHugh; T Robinson, D O'Sullivan, S Moore, W Munn; E Elwood, E Reddan; D McFarland, M Uijs, R McCormack; W Waugh, R Frost; M Swift, J O'Sullivan, C Rigney. Replacements: D Browne for Waugh (half-time), P Bracken for McFarland, J Flannery for Uijs, E Peters for Swift (all 60 mins), M Walls for Reddan, J Norton for Elwood (both 63 mins).
PONTYPRIDD: B Davey; G Wyatt, S Parker, J Bryant, E Lewis; N Jenkins, P John; G Jenkins, M Davies, D Bell, B Cockbain, R Sidoli, N Kelly, M Owen, W O'Connor. Replacements: D McIntosh for Sidoli (64 mins), G Baber for John (66 mins), C Sweeney for N Jenkins, M Rees for Kelly (both 70 mins), J Lewis for Bryant (73 mins), N Hennessy for G Jenkins, K Jones for O'Connor (both 78 mins).
Referee: Andy Ireland (Scotland).
