After years as the underdogs, Connacht are starting to bare their teeth.
The have reinvented themselves on the pitch with their entertaining brand of rugby and are about to do likewise off the pitch too. They are one of Irish rugby’s ‘feelgood’ stories.
Their 10-year Vision and Strategy document published during the week and five-year plan to be unveiled next week are typical of their type, in that they are lofty, ambitious and aspirational. But more than ever they sit comfortably.
The headline act is Connacht’s professional team and the ambition is to finish in the top half of the BKT URC more often than not and then take their chances in the knock-out stages.
“That’s got to be the goal,” insists their chief executive Willie Ruane. “We have to be relevant. We want to be part of the conversation at the start and at the end of the season.”
Connacht came up short in 11th last season, and outside of the big four or five, they are swimming with the Springboks-studded Sharks, the Lions, Ulster, Benetton, Edinburgh, Ospreys, Cardiff and Scarlets.
“It’s easy to say we want to win silverware,” adds Ruane. “We have an ambition to win, genuinely we do, but we have to be realistic. We’re not going to win as often as Leinster, and Leinster find it bloody difficult because that’s how competitive it is. And they’re regarded as not being successful, yet they’re super successful.”
Ruane regards the URC as two tournaments in one.
“We don’t need to win the league. We just need to finish in the top half and then go into a cup competition. Win three cup matches and you could be champions.”
He cites Connacht’s 2015-16 Pro12 title, and reaching the semi-final two seasons ago, as well as Munster doing it the hard way last season.
“We don’t need to be one to four [in the league table], because we’d probably go bankrupt trying to achieve it,” says Ruane, and in any case they can only spend so much recruiting and polishing hidden gems like Cian Prendergast, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Sean Jansen and Shayne Bolton, as well as developing home-grown talent like Niall and Darragh Murray, Matty Devine and last week’s debutant, Hugh Gavin.
Last season Connacht still had a 50 per cent or better winning record for the sixth consecutive campaign. For the dozen seasons before the 2015-16 triumph, Connacht had a losing record and when they were being drip-fed by the IRFU after coming close to disbandment in 2003-04, Connacht finished in the bottom two for six seasons.
While an elite professional team tops the pyramid, like all the provinces Connacht have the responsibility to develop six-year-olds who might never play senior rugby, and every level in between.
“It doesn’t make their journey any less valid because they might ultimately become a coach, a referee or a volunteer. They’re the lifeblood,” says Ruane.
One of Connacht’s challenges, like the other provinces and all team sports, is maintaining adult playing numbers.
Aided by investment in grassroots rugby, there has been significant growth since 2016 in the number of young boys (over 4,500) and especially girls (1,200) playing rugby in Connacht. Last season they won the Under-18 women’s interpros for the first time.
“The adult game is a different story,” Ruane admits during a 90-minute interview with The Irish Times. “We’re not seeing a fall-off but we’re seeing a stagnation.”
The number of male adults is over 1,300 and adult female players 200.
Gaelic games is a colossus in the province, nor can rugby ever match football. But, as Ruane stresses, Connacht has to provide the best coaching, refereeing and facilities; for example floodlighting to cater for Friday night games, and this means upgrading facilities at clubs and schools.
“If we don’t nail the ‘experience’ we’re not going to retain those players,” says Ruane.
The four senior clubs – Corinthians, Galwegians, Sligo and Buccaneers – and 22 junior clubs also face the challenge of migration to Dublin and abroad for studies and work.
Unlike in Leinster, the schools and clubs coexist in Connacht, ie players can play for both.
“The whole system depends on being able to play both,” says Ruane, who acknowledges that Connacht cannot replicate the Leinster model of elite, fee-playing schools investing millions to nurture ready-made professionals.
This coexistence between the schools and clubs has helped Connacht maintain four Under-20 teams, two in Corinthians and one each in Galwegians and Buccaneers, who all compete in Leinster leagues.
Critically, Connacht are upgrading the Dexcom Stadium with a new north stand and a new half-sized indoor pitch, changing rooms, medical facilities, diningrooms, analysis rooms, and meeting rooms and offices.
The new stand should be completed early next season, and will cater for roughly 2,000 terraced, 4,000 seated and 1,000 premium level supporters, thus increasing the capacity from just over 6,000 (or 8,000 with additional terracing) to 12,000.
The Government contributed €20 million from the large-scale sports infrastructure fund toward the overall €50 million cost, which one Connacht board member forecast ‘will be a beacon for regional development’.
“The Government were very supportive, as were all the Opposition parties,” says Ruane.
Increased revenue from attendances, sponsorship and partnerships since 2016 (by almost €3 million) indicates the growth of Connacht, who contributed their €6 million share of the CVC investment into the URC, and the remainder was funded by naming rights and “philanthropic gifts and donations”.
The development will increase revenue streams from conferences, exhibitions, weddings etc, with Connacht hiring Deloitte’s sports department in the UK to provide a detailed outline of the stadium’s capacity, its ratio of terracing, seating and hospitality, and future alternative uses outside of 15 or so matchdays a year.
“We spent a bit of money on that,” says Ruane, “and it was the best we ever spent. They engaged with supporters, small- and medium-sized enterprises and large multinationals. They advised us what to build and how to design it, and that literally was the brief we handed to the architects.”
The increased capacity will provide scope for more varied ticket pricing to make Connacht games “more accessible” while increasing their crowd average of 5,000.
The redevelopment of the old Sportsground was one of three main goals in their last mission statement in 2016, Grass Roots To Green Shirts. Another was governance fit for purpose and the other was building their financial capacity, and though delayed by the pandemic, Connacht have delivered on all three.
But there’s plenty more to do.
“The Connacht Council of the GAA had a great vision a few years ago when they developed a Centre of Excellence halfway between Ballyhaunis and Knock,” says Ruane, who hopes Connacht will have a regional community hub outlined within five years.
The province has long had a healthy chip on the shoulder with a liking for giving bigger teams a bloody nose and, as a former fullback for the province during the late 90s upturn under Warren Gatland, Ruane is happy with this.
There is a wider Connacht identity too.
“People had an absolute burning ambition to provide better for themselves and their families. You think of what people arrived into in the west of Ireland many, many years ago and how they managed – through blood, sweat and toil – to turn a crap bit of ground into a great bit of ground.
“If you convert that into our identity, we want to surpass expectations, to do better than the sum of our parts, because it shines a light on what we’re all capable of achieving. That sounds lofty but it’s not when you get down to the day-to-day of it.
“We don’t have the scale of the others but it does not mean we can’t be brilliant at the things we do,” says Ruane, admitting Connacht can never be Man City, but can aspire to be Brighton.
“They know exactly who they are and who their model is and they’re bloody good at it. That’s our reference point.”
What’s more, nothing represents Connacht quite like their rugby teams.
“If you google the word Connacht we occupy nearly the whole first page. That’s a serious responsibility and a great opportunity. When people believe you represent them, that’s when they follow you, that’s when you fill a Dexcom Stadium and that’s when you’re able to invest in everything else that you want to achieve.”
A decade in the job, Ruane loves what he does even if the hours are longer.
“I keep saying it would be a great job if there were no matches,” he quips.
“Yeah, it is stressful, because you care, and the day you don’t care is the day you need to be doing something else. I’ve said on occasion ‘my passion is my cross’ but that’s the same with every single person who’s involved in Connacht Rugby. We push uphill, but we love pushing up the hill.”
Ask him where he’d like to envisage Connacht being in five or 10 years’ time and he talks of “a really strong and healthy grassroots game” and “a deep connection with the people and place we represent”.
“I’d love if rugby in Connacht felt completely in unison, that the shared sense of identity was really tight, that there was no club/province divide, and I would love that if boys and girls were looking at Connacht Rugby they genuinely would be proud to say that we represent them and they can see their ambition through us.”
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