European Champions Cup pool two: Toulouse v Connacht (tomorrow, 3.15pm, Stade Ernest Wallon, live on Sky Sports 4)
JOHN Muldoon made his European debut for Connacht back in 2004 in a Challenge Cup game with Narbonne on the south coast of France.
This week he signed a contract extension that will keep him at the Sportsground for at least a fourteenth season. How things have changed since then.
When he first came through the gates, Connacht rugby was on the verge of extinction. Indeed, it’s just over five years since he played his first ever Heineken Cup game. And here they are now, with their fate in their own hands as they strive to make the last eight of Europe’s premier competition.
Pat Lam has already heralded the idea of qualification from pool two of the Champions Cup as potentially being Connacht’s greatest ever achievement. This, he says, is their biggest game ever.
If they do qualify, a lot of it will come back to Muldoon sweet-talking replacement referee Mathieu Reynal against Wasps, convincing him to allow Connacht to go to the corner and set up the driving maul that, allied to Jack Carty’s fine conversion, won the game at the death.
With Zebre on the menu for the Premiership side, they will still be expected to emerge with a bonus point that would see them qualify as one of the best runners-up at worst, if not top the pool.
A win of any kind would guarantee Lam's team a runners-up place at least – adding a bonus point would see them top the pool.
The bookmakers have Connacht as a 6/1 shot to emerge victorious at Stade Ernest-Wallon – a high price but considerably shy of some of the odds they’ve conquered over the past year.
The injured ankles of Bundee Aki and Ultan Dillane have weakened their hand considerably since the pair were at the heart of Connacht’s recovery from ten points down in the reverse fixture.
A torturous opening for their scrum allowed Toulouse to build an early lead that they stretched to 21-11 by half-time, only for Aki and Craig Ronaldson in particular helping swing a 23-21 win for Lam’s men.
“We're top of the pool and we've worked hard to be here - Wasps and Toulouse, they're two champions and we've beaten them," said Connacht’s head coach.
“We have earned the right to be where we are now and more importantly going into this game, to have that control in our hands is great.
“We have worked hard right through this pool to get ourselves into a situation where we go out to win, so we do our work, we prepare, and whatever it takes to win the game is what we are after.
“Of course we are aware of other scenarios, but we have a mindset that it is not about bonus points, but preparing to go into the biggest game of Connacht's history.
“Toulouse will punish us badly if we don't get it right, so it is important to have a good week's training now.”
Toulouse require a bonus point win to leapfrog Connacht and keep their own hopes alive, and with Top14 wins over Clermont and Stade Francais behind them in recent weeks, they are hitting their straps.
Jack Carty has recovered from injury in time to start at fly-half, while Peter Robb also returns to form a new centre partnership with Craig Ronaldson.
Quinn Roux takes his place in the second row after missing out last week, while Nepia Fox-Matamua and Jake Heenan join skipper Muldoon in the back row.
They may be rank outsiders but if we’ve learnt anything from last season, it’s to never write Connacht off.
THE TEAMS
Toulouse: Y Huget; A Bonneval, Y David, G Fickou, P Perez; JM Doussain, S Bezy; C Baille, C Tolofua, C Johnston; R Gray, Y Maestri; J Tekori, T Dusautoir, F Cros
Replacements: L Ghiraldini, V Kakovin, G Steenkamp, T Gray, P Faasalele, G Galan, T Flood, A Palisson
Connacht: T O’Halloran; N Adeolokun, P Robb, C Ronaldson, M Healy; J Carty, K Marmion; D Buckley, T McCartney, F Bealham; Q Roux, J Cannon; N Fox-Matamua, J Heenan, J Muldoon
Replacements: D Heffernan, JP Cooney, J Andress, S O’Brien, N Dawai, J Cooney, T Farrell, D Poolman
