So it begins again. Tonight in the Sportsground local rugby fans will turn up to see how Connacht can fare against one of the powerhouses of the English game.
Saracens, whose director of rugby is former Irish international Mark McCall, may have delivered a forbidding message in the opening sallies of the domestic season, with four wins from four outings distinguishing them in the English Premiership. But they aren’t so lofty as to take any European outing for granted and the expectation is that they are coming to Galway with the intention of laying down a marker.
“I think they have said in the press that they are going to take every game as a one-off game,” John Muldoon said during the week. “They have said last week that they would rest players with this week and this game in mind.”
Tonight’s fixture encapsulates the perennial contradictions for Connacht. Nobody can deny that their coronation as Heineken Cup participants has been met with great local enthusiasm, with bigger attendances and improved profile for the club. But if they are boxing heavyweights in the Rabo Direct Pro12 league, then the European Cup demands super-heroic performances from them just to live and compete against teams who boast a cast of internationals in their reserves, let alone in the starting XV.
Saracens rested 11 starters in defeating Wasps last weekend, with England outhalf Owen Farrell not starting even though Charlie Hodgson was injured.
Uneven at best
Connacht have no such personnel luxuries and team form in the opening weeks of the season has been uneven at best. But there is always an expectation – or obligation – that they will summon something special from within to befit occasions like tonight.
One of the best nights of European rugby for Connacht, when they left Conor O’Shea’s Harlequins team shipwrecked and out of the quarter-finals and also ended what seemed like an eternal losing streak.
“Yeah, I think it was 14 defeats but who’s counting?” Muldoon laughed before acknowledging that at some level, Connacht as a club always has to prove its right to exist.
“It is one of those things that we are always fighting with someone: should we be in this competition and are we good enough. Are we the fourth team? It is just another push-us-down situation that we are used to. The results haven’t gone our way and it is a big challenge.
“Nobody is giving us a chance so it is a great opportunity for us to go out as underdogs as we have hundreds of times before and with a home crowd and hopefully seven or eight thousand people shouting us on: I don’t think anyone who puts on the jersey feels like we are going to get hammered. That attitude is long gone. We are expecting a full 15 coming over and that is sport.”
The mood of restlessness which has gripped the English and French clubs has introduced a black cloud to this year’s competition. If they duly withdraw, then clubs like Connacht will be left to their own devices and nights like tonight will be no more.
Saracens are intent on running with the big beasts this season. They have acute memories of being the whipping boys in the European game: just three seasons ago, they won just one of six pool games and two years ago received a chastening lesson at home against Clermont Auvergne, who beat them 22-3 in the quarter-final.
Prestige club
The draw has been kind this year: a big win in Galway would set them up for a crucial home game against Toulouse, the other prestige club in this pool. Connacht and Zebre are expected to live off scraps.
Muldoon has always been an eloquent spokesman for the Connacht cause and while he doesn’t spin things, he has to explain why his team-mates feel they can reverse both form and general expectation when they play against elite European teams.
“I have been in Connacht rugby for a long time. There have been seasons where we lost games and that was it: we were never in the game. The frustrating thing for us is that we believe we are doing enough and have done enough to win the games but just made critical errors, be that high penalty counts, high turnovers and that has cost us game.
“But we are doing a lot right. We are just not getting the results. It is difficult to come in off the pitch, yes but when you know you are doing so much right as opposed to maybe in the past not being in for a win, that gives us encouragement. We have to cut the mistakes out but we are doing enough to win the games and have the talent to win the games.”
Whether that talent can realistically place them in a position to achieve what would be the first great shock of the European club season is a different matter. Saracens may be among the clubs gunning to end the Heineken Cup as we know it. But they wouldn’t mind winning it first.
“We have nothing to lose. All the pressure is on them. Like Harlequins a couple of years ago. Saracens are top of the league and they are playing well. But that is the beauty of sport . . . you can’t be sure what is going to happen. It doesn’t happen too often but we have come out on the good side of things.
“This competition is special. We haven’t been in it long but we have loved every night that we have been in it. Heineken Cup rugby is about Friday nights. And we are going to get a good opportunity to put our wares out tonight and are looking forward to it.”
