Celtic League/ Connacht 35; Leinster 24: Unfancied, unfashionable Connacht overturn Leinster in Sportsground Shock? Hardly. This has been Leinster's least productive venue since the late 1980s, and whereas the best part of Connacht's season in still to come, Leinster are merely marking time on theirs.
Indeed, after Leinster's seventh defeat in their last nine treks to Galway, it was instructive to listen to the reactions of the two coaches. Gary Ella bemoaned the surfeit of matches his injury-disrupted squad are having to contend with. This was Connacht's 25th match of the season, compared to 13 last season, Michael Bradley noted, with another eight or nine to go. Given that Connacht's season is normally over by mid-March, bring 'em on was the gist of his viewpoint.
Bradley's good spirits had been helped by a timely and deserved win in a match he had targeted big-time. With six former or current Leinster club players in their ranks, and three erstwhile Connacht players in the visitors' line-up, this fixture always has a parochial edge to it, and Connacht were mustard keen to atone for missed chances at Donnybrook last October.
After a bright start, the influence of Leinster's big ball carriers Des Dillon and Victor Costello wilted as Connacht's superior power up front told with four second-half tries from the pack - three mauls and one pushover.
"Going back to the Donnybrook match (a flattering 20-6 win for Leinster), we played well but we didn't take our chances. This time we defended well in the first half, felt we had the advantage up front, played to it, kept our composure and got the scores," said Bradley. "That was where the advantage was."
Leinster's cause wasn't helped when the classy Felipe Contepomi sustained at the very least a strained groin - their number-10 jinx striking again - and then the binning in quick succession of Christian Warner (the product of Leinster's persistent fringing, though bizarrely mistaken for John Lynn) and Costello for an early, high tackle after Mike Walls's quick tap.
Although an MRI scan today will reveal the full extent of the Puma's injury, it looks like ruling him out as an additional player for Munster in the knockout stages of the European Cup.
Despite being two men down, Leinster scored a stunning, length-of-the-field try after a Matt Leek interception ended another Connacht siege, and Brown broke clear when working a switch with Dillon to finish off James Norton's strong running.
But Connacht also scored 15 points in that spell to move 28-21 ahead, and though Leinster remained theoretically alive until injury time, another huge mauling try for Andrew Farley put a truer perspective on the scoreline.
Leinster had begun impressively. Dillon, eager to show his former province how much he has progressed, galloped through the Connacht blind-side defence, before Gary Brown did likewise up the middle for the supporting Aidan Kearney to score under the posts.
With Contepomi nailing his kicks, and Mark McHugh seeing two of his first three blown off course into a stiff wind, Leinster built up a 13-3 buffer in the first quarter. But soon the excellent Bernard Jackman and company started punching holes and Connacht got their recycling going.
A miscontrolled Leinster scrum was pounced on by Conor O'Loughlin and the impressive Matt Mostyn, and after punching away in the right corner, Connacht went crossfield, where Darren Yapp looped to score from Conor McPhillips's deft, soft pass.
Though the wind abated and was replaced by slanting rain when the teams turned around, thereafter it was about getting down and dirty. Ultimately this was a victory ground out by the foot soldiers up front, and the ripple effect was that John O'Sullivan, curbing his natural ballplaying for a tighter game, eclipsed Dillon and Costello.
With the first leg of their Euro semi-final against Harlequins at the Stoop just four weeks and three games away, and this win taking them into seventh place in the league, Connacht can hardly wait for the run-in to their campaign. Leinster, you sense, can scarcely wait for theirs to end.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 mins: Contepomi pen 0-3; 6: Kearney try, Contepomi con 0-10; 12: McHugh pen 3-10; 15: Contepomi pen 3-13; 28: Yapp try 8-13; 37: Contepomi pen 8-16; 53: Lacey try 13-16; 58: Elwood pen 16-16; 63: Brown try 16-21; 67: Lacey try 21-21; 76: O'Sullivan try, Elwood con 28-21; 79: Leek pen 28-24; 83: Farley try, Elwood con 35-24.
CONNACHT: M McHugh; M Mostyn, D Yapp, S Moore, C McPhillips; E Elwood, C O'Loughlin; D McFarland, B Jackman, P Bracken, D Browne, A Farley, M Swift, M Lacey, J O'Sullivan. Replacements: A Clarke for Bracken (50 mins), M Walls for O'Loughlin (54 mins), P Neville for Swift (85 mins), M Carroll for Browne (86 mins). Yellow cards: Warner (58 mins), Costello (65 mins).
LEINSTER: J Norton; J McWeeney, G Brown, C Warner, B Burke; F Contepomi, B O'Riordan; J Lyne, D Blaney, S Brophy, A Kearney, B Gissing, D Dillon (capt), V Costello, N Ronan. Replacements: M Leek for Contepomi (52 mins), J Moran for Brophy (65 mins), S Crawford for Kearney (79 mins).
Referee: Nigel Williams (Wales).
