Truthfully, there's never been a more seismic win in the history of the Heineken Cup. Connacht, with a budget of circa €2.5 million, were the weekend's biggest outsiders, at 20/1, against Toulouse, the four-time winners with a budget of €34.8 million, who had won all seven home games this season, six with bonus points. Yet their 16-14 win was fully deserved and will have sent shock waves through European rugby.
Afterwards, Pat Lam could justifiably hail the victory as the greatest in Connacht's history – their version of Munster's win over the All Blacks.
Second clean sweep
It also completed a second consecutive, and stunning, clean sweep by the Irish provinces – the best weekend in the pool stages they have ever known, after Munster had backed up handsome wins by Leinster (possibly the best performance in the tournament to date) away to Northampton and at home by Ulster, by earlier beating Perpignan 36-8.
“It is absolutely amazing,” said Lam. “We are the first team to win here this season. I’m just so proud of my team, and of our province. It was an unbelievable effort. That’s what Connacht is all about.”
Bottom of the Rabo Pro12, Connacht had slumped to an eighth successive league defeat when losing 43-10 in Edinburgh last weekend, but Lam maintained their form had been better than indicated.
“Conceding three tries to Edinburgh in the last five minutes was maybe a blessing in disguise, and we tidied our defence up during the week and got our shape right.
“All I did was to bring shape, but that takes heart, and that’s what they showed in abundance. There was just one system error and they came through on it.”
That Jean-Pascal Barraque try gave Toulouse a 7-6 interval lead but a second penalty by Dan Parks, to add to a drop goal, and a try by the outstanding Kieron Marmion, converted by Parks, swung the game Connacht's way. A 58th minute try by Robbie Henshaw, when released for a long-range run-in by Gavin Duffy off a turnover, was dubiously disallowed on referral to the TMO for a supposed knock-on back in the Connacht 22.
That would have made it 23-7 approaching the hour mark, but after a Toulouse drive yielded a Thierry Dusautoir try, Connacht kept Toulouse to inside half-way as they held out convincingly, pushing up hard and making their tackles to ensure no endgame heartache a la the All Blacks.
“I thought we were hard done by at the end for that that try by the TMO. That was gut-wrenching. There were some tough calls out there but I’m ecstatic with the players. You could not afford to retreat into your shell, it was important to keep playing.
“They have been the European champions. We have come here and into a team that never loses at home, so knew it was a massive challenge. It was like David and Goliath all over again. It is probably the biggest victory in Connacht’s history.”
All four Irish provinces are in action next Saturday, with the Connacht-Toulouse return meeting clashing with Leinster v Northampton at the Aviva.
“Yeah, the Sportsground next week,” enthused Lam. “There will probably be a lot of talk about Toulouse not being at their best but it’s game on. They’re going to be hurt, they’re going to be written off, and that’s going to be a dangerous French side, so we’re just going to have to take our own game to our own level next week.”
Leinster and Ulster are the only sides with three wins out of three and Connacht could ultimately do one of their fellow Irish provinces a favour as well.
Alas, Munster's victory may have come at a significant price however, with Conor Murray forced off in the first quarter with a knee injury and leaving the ground on crutches.
“It’s massive when you lose someone of his calibre at any point in the season,” admitted Penney, “and we’ll have our fingers crossed that it’s not as bad (as feared). On the other side of it, Cathal (Sheridan) came out and did a great job and that’s what you’ve got back ups for.”
As for the performance itself, Penney admitted; “At times it was right up there, but we’re still hamstrung to a degree. We get teams on the rack and then, all of a sudden, there’s a poor decision made.
"But, we're a lot better than we were 12 months ago, there's improvement made and I thought overall, we were terrific. Without putting a number on it, I think components were maybe a nine and some were a four.
'Under the pump'
"Some of the sequences of plays we put together really put them really under the pump," he added, whereas the areas of concern "were around the decision-making, skill errors, passes going behind people – when we have two or three man overlaps and the ball hits the deck. Little frustrations like that; this team is much better than that but for some reason they creep in."
There was a better mix to Munster’s game, and Penney took slight umbrage when it was put to him that Munster might have had more joy if they’d been more direct.
“I’m really happy with how we structured the game.”
Penney conceded next Saturday’s return clash in the Stade Aimé Giral, when Perpignan will be fighting for their lives, will be “completely” different. “Chalk and cheese. Jeez, they’ll be a bit ratty about today, they’ll be getting it a little bit of a hard time from their home media and they’ll be rabid dogs.”
Casey Laulala has been linked with a big money move to Grenoble at the end of the season, and Penney merely said: “I have no idea what is happening with Casey at the moment. He is off contract at the end. I think there are multiple people talking to him, including us.”
