Connacht just cannot stop winning.
Faced with the daunting task of going to Thomond Park and winning is a task that most teams shrink away from and in most circumstances they usually end up getting a hiding for their negative mental attitude. However Pat Lam and his men arrived in Limerick with the positivity that defines a winning team and they took Munster on from the start and in the end they were worthy winners.
Not a bad way to break a 29 year losing streak at Thomond Park, is it?
The so-called “fourth province” are on a roll in the PRO12 – they’ve won seven of their opening eight games and their only loss, to Glasgow, saw them pick up two bonus points which is what sees them sitting pretty at the top of the table. Wins away to the Ospreys and Munster have only furthered their credentials as a potential top four challenger, a position they have never been in in the modern era, and right now those credentials are wholly justified.
Pat Lam has coached a side of relatively unknown players into title challengers and they are revelling in their newfound success. The likes of veterans John Muldoon, Nathan White and George Nauopu bolster a group of young starlets such as Robbie Henshaw and Kieran Marmion, while the acquisition of Super Rugby winning centre Bundee Aki looks to be a considerably astute one, especially given the role he played in Saturday’s win.
Since Lam took over there have been signs of improvement within the whole organisation. Last season Connacht were unlucky to miss out on the Champions’ Cup both through their league standing and then in their play-off defeat to Gloucester, but this season there’s a sense that Connacht are building to something even more, and their start to the season would suggest they have already made massive steps.
But is there more to their excellent start than just their own form?
They have been fortuitous in that they only lost one player to the World Cup (Robbie Henshaw; fly-half A.J. MacGinty was signed after the World Cup ended) where others did. The result is that Pat Lam has had a much more settled squad to work with recently while the rest of the league have been coping with working their international players back into the fold and getting them used to their patterns once more.
I am not saying Connacht do not deserve to be in first place, far from it as some of their play has fully justified their place at the top of the tree at the moment, but there is a bigger picture. How the Ospreys played during the World Cup puts into perspective Connacht’s win at the Liberty Stadium, while their sole other away win was at Zebre who, with all due respect to the Italians, are not the league’s most difficult opponents even if their play has improved this season as well.
Connacht’s win over Munster ended 29 years of heartache for the Galway based province, and for now they rightfully occupy top spot in the Guinness PRO12. If they continue to play the same brand of rugby they have so far this season then they definitely stand a chance of finishing in the top four and disrupting the balance of power in Ireland, but the season is still young and there’s still a long way to go and a lot of difficult away venues to visit.
But for now, Lam and Connacht are ticking all the right boxes.
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