Corinthians throw formbook out window

Any rivalry that is locally compared to Celtic-Rangers and Tipperary-Cork hurlers, as this final was in the match programme, means form counts for little. Sure enough, Corinthians gave as fired up a performance as the season has witnessed to shred the formbook and scatter it to the sunny winds of Galway yesterday.

For a mid-table third division side to beat the unbeaten and newly promoted Division Two champions will have given Corinthians more pleasure than anything they have achieved since their last Connacht Senior Cup win in 1994. And probably more than that. "C'mon on the part-timers," was a regular dig at the perceived injustice of Galwegians having the backbone of the professional Connacht squad.

This Sportsground final was riddled with 33 penalties and over 20 scrums courtesy of the fastidious Padraig Gilmore, and punctuated by too many handling errors and turnovers. Yet it was madcap, absorbing and ultimately exciting, and seemingly showed that hell hath no fury than a Corinthian man scorned. It was won as much with their hearts as it was lost by Galwegians' headlessness.

First off, it was founded on the unconventional but meaty and deadly accurate place-kicking of George Wright, who landed four out of five towering first-half penalties with the stiff breeze behind him, including one from his own half.

If one individual's Corinthian spirit underpinned their collective effort, it was that of one-time Galwegians' third-choice scrum-half Ian Place. Given a "one per cent" chance of playing by his coach Stewart Baker, Place was testing his damaged knee ligaments up until shortly before kick-off.

"When he declared himself fit to play that was a massive boost for us," admitted Baker, an adopted Scot. "He must be in absolute agony now." An even bigger boost was Place squirming over for the ultimately decisive try to cap an unfussy yet effective performance in which he invariably took the right option.

Thereafter, this famous win (as it will be hereabouts) was founded on herculean defence, in which bodies were thrown everywhere as the penalty count mounted. The collective effort was typified by tearaway flanker Brendan Keaney, and pacey Kiwi leftwinger Andy Gollings, who made a couple of try-saving intercepts and one `lost-cause' covering tackle on Alan Reddan when the Galwegians' centre dropped the ball over the Corinthians' line in the key moment of the match.

"I never doubted that we would win this game," revealed the surprisingly optimistic Baker. Corinthians will feel that they deserved it. Galwegians will feel they blew it, spectacularly so, at the end of a long and otherwise unblemished season, and both verdicts are applicable.

With the wind Corinthians sensibly opted to take their three points, Wright having proved that anything in the opposition half was comfortably within his range after landing a third minute penalty from three metres inside his own half. The underdogs assiduously compiled a 12 point lead before Mervyn Murphy atoned for the collective looseness of Galwegians' back play when crashing through with a typically forceful diagonal break for a well-taken try.

Eric Elwood, untypically speechless afterwards as he still awaits a first Connacht Cup medal, reduced the arrears further soon after the resumption but Place's try gave Corinthians something tangible to defend.

Corinthians couldn't buy a line-out, even on their own throw, after a mix-up off the pitch which meant Billy Davis was not permitted to rejoin the fray after being replaced by a non-throwing hooker. Tight-head Richard Caulfield took over the dartsmanship, and Galwegians pilfered everything.

Corinthians' desperation in defence - there might well have been a penalty try for three successive penalties on their line - was matched by Galwegians' even more desperate attacks. Galwegians backed themselves into a tactical corner as three points were regularly turned down from before the hour mark.

This was compounded when Alan Reddan failed to ground the ball as he sought to narrow the conversion angle after another forceful break and offload by Murphy. Galwegians still had more close-in set-pieces than they'd normally get in a month, but panicking prematurely, their decision making was woeful.

Elwood was denied a try by Ronnie Ferguson's last-line tackle after a jinking run before eventually burrowing over under the posts. But despite seven more minutes of pressure, Galwegians ran out of time and chances. They'd had enough to win the game two or three times, but in this case fortune had favoured the brave.

Kevin Putt, the New Zealand-born former Terenure scrum-half, who had been linked with Galwegians, is now apparently set on joining Harlequins next season.

Currently with the South African Super 12 side the Coastal Sharks, Putt's name has been on the Irish rugby rumour mill, but the financial lure of Harlequins, coupled with the presence of Zinzan Brooke, will seemingly lead him to the Stoop for the start of next season.