Connacht could have been going into next Saturday’s Challenge Cup Round of 16 game against Cardiff at the Dexcom Stadium (kick-off 8pm) on the crest of a wave had they completed another of their trademark comebacks in last Saturday’s historic fixture against Munster.
They did salvage two bonus points, as well as some pride, in the 30-24 defeat at MacHale Park, but Connacht now sit 13th in the URC table. While only three points outside the top eight – and qualification for both this season’s play-offs and next season’s Champions Cup – they face a trek to South Africa for games against the Stormers and the Lions before hosting Edinburgh and finishing their regular season campaign against Zebre in Parma.
Realistically, the Challenge Cup is looking a likelier, if still difficult, route to glory.
“We have to park it pretty much straight away” admitted Connacht hooker Dave Heffernan on the Munster loss. “We’ll do our review and our analysis of what went wrong and why it went wrong but we need to move on very quickly from this.
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“It’s knock-out rugby next weekend, it’s all or nothing and if we want to win silverware, the Challenge Cup is most likely the way we’re going to do it. We owe our fans a performance at home and hopefully give them another big home game.”
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Connacht secured top seeding in the Challenge Cup knock-out rounds with a maximum 20-point haul from the pool stages, ensuring they have home advantage potentially all the way to the final, which will be played at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
However, they’ve had two tight games this season against this weekend’s opponents, winning 28-19 in their final Challenge Cup pool game last January and by 24-19 in the URC in mid-February thanks to a 75th-minute try.
“To get the top seed is massive and to have Cardiff, and home knock-out games all the way to the final potentially, is huge but we just need to switch on for Cardiff now.
“We know the importance of the game and the magnitude of it. It’s a long, long way away, but there’s silverware there at the end of it so we have to turn the page on the URC for the next two weeks and hopefully have a right crack at the Challenge Cup.”
There’s no doubting the spirit of this Connacht team, or the attacking heights they can reach, the pity being that they wait until they’re well behind before showing what they’re capable of.
“It’s a question we’ve been asking of ourselves. I don’t have a perfect answer,” said Heffernan. “We play with freedom at the start of a game and then we give ourselves a lot of work to do. You see how good our attack is and how good we can play when the shackles are off, we just need to find a way to play like that for 70-80 minutes of a game.
“We can’t do it for the last 20 minutes and keep trying to dig ourselves out of these holes because it’s tough to do, especially when you’re playing against a quality side like Munster.”
Hailing from Ballina made the defeat all the more painful for Heffernan, but now in his 14th season with the province he admitted he could never have imagined wearing a Connacht jersey in front of a 27,000-plus crowd in Castlebar.
“When I joined Connacht, maybe there was a perception that it was a Galway team, so to be able to fill out a stadium like this with 27,000 – and a lot of people were getting on to me during the week looking for tickets so there’s plenty more demand as well – it’s incredible.”
Connacht’s growth is further underlined by the redevelopment of Dexcom Stadium which is due to be completed next season, increasing the capacity to 12,000.
“There should be no doubts about how exciting it will be next season now,” said Heffernan. “If we’re able to fill out a 27,000 capacity stadium we can fill out the Sportsground.”
