After a promising start, Connacht ran out of steam in the final quarter of their contest with Leinster at the Dexcom Stadium on Saturday night.
The unveiling of the Clan Stand was meant to be a night of celebration for Connacht, but Leinster had other ideas at the Dexcom Stadium on Saturday night.
The hosts ran out of steam in the end, but regardless, the development shows that Connacht as a province and a member of the IRFU is vitally important to the future success of Irish rugby.
In stark contrast to the uncertainties surrounding Welsh Rugby and its regions, Connacht have benefited from grants and investment needed to improve the facilities at their rugby headquarters.
Twenty-three years ago, Connacht was on the brink of extinction, much like the rumours surrounding the Welsh regions. The people in the west fought for their team and Connacht have been fighting for their place in Irish rugby since.
The development of new facilities feels like a statement of security for the province. Not long ago there were informal opinions that there is enough talent there to absorb London Irish as the fifth Irish team, to strengthen the depths of Irish talent. If there's enough talent to contemplate a fifth province, then there’s certainly enough talent to allow Connacht to flourish.
The increased capacity in the club’s new stand will allow Connacht to grow as an organisation. The challenge will be to continue selling to a higher capacity once the hype of the new stand dies down. With that comes revenue opportunities, and sport relies so heavily on revenue. The new stand will give the club life, longevity and a new purpose to connect with the west.
On the pitch, Connacht’s form hasn’t been reflective of the excitement surrounding their developments.
They’ve hit a rut in the league, losing to Ospreys, Ulster, twice to Leinster and they were on the receiving end of a hammering against the Dragons, all since the start of December. They pulled off a couple of high-scoring victories in the Challenge Cup, though they were outliers.
Outside of their recent form, Connacht’s restructuring with Stuart Lancaster, and what looks like an IRFU restructuring of talent distribution, should provide ample scope for their fortunes to change.
Lancaster still has a point to prove as a head coach. Nevertheless, he’s a top-quality operator and his name continues to be credited for some of the developments made in Leinster’s playing system in the last decade.
There’s no doubt that Lancaster’s name and the players’ previous experience with him in Leinster is helping the IRFU’s talent redistribution, aiding the players buy-in to the move away from Leinster.
Ciarán Frawley, who will join the Lancaster project next season, delivered the crucial blow to seal an away win. It's a statement signing from Connacht, marking a new dawn in the appetite for players to move west to improve their chances of playing important minutes and pushing harder for an Irish jersey. It is rumoured that a handful of Leinster players could join Frawley in reuniting with Lancaster.
It’s not solely down to the Lancaster effect. The IRFU’s recognition of Leinster’s financial advantage with central contract agreements mean that Leinster now must offload some wages, and Connacht will be more than happy to provide a home to these experienced professionals. The likes of Will Connors and Jordan Larmour could well be announced as Connacht players in the coming weeks too.
Frawley will give Lancaster something that he has been looking for in the last few months. An out-half that can put everything together, and with a younger age profile. Josh Ioane was almost the answer for Connacht’s fast style of play on the synthetic surface, however, he still makes errors in kicking and game management. The Skerries man should be a trustworthy improvement for Lancaster.
They’ve also signed Francois van Wyk to back up Finlay Bealham while they continue to develop the likes of Fiachna Barrett. Van Wyk is a shrewd signing for Lancaster in his quest to upskill and improve the consistency of behaviour out west.
Lancaster’s knack for talent development will also shine through. It can be argued that he’s still benefiting from the work gone on before him. However, it won’t do him any harm with Billy Bohan’s recent promotion to Irish camp.
Young players like Bohan, Fiachra Barrett, Harry West, Hugh Gavin and Finn Treacy can provide the spine of a homegrown and exciting team. Add to that a young and committed captain like Cian Prendergast and there’s a blueprint for success, with a few external additions.
However, Connacht will always face the challenge of finances and squad depth. Their three guaranteed Irish involvements are now either ageing or on the sidelines. Bealham isn’t getting any younger as a tighthead, Bundee Aki must be in his final season or two and Mack Hansen has gone through a recurring injury issue that will see him miss the end of the season.
Add to that, Connacht are losing talent of their own. Their homegrown talents continue to seek opportunity elsewhere. Matthew Devine’s promise as an exciting young talent has been hindered by a lack of game time and he’s been rumoured to be joining Ulster.
While Jack Aungier wasn’t a product of the Connacht system, his career has been developed across nearly 100 club caps in Connacht. He is also rumoured to be seeking opportunity either in Munster or Ulster. Connacht need to keep their own talent while appealing to talent from outside the province too.
The ingredients are there for Connacht to improve. They have new and improved facilities, top quality coaching and talent development. It’s now a case of putting it together to show the tangible benefits that we have been expecting under Lancaster.
It will take time for his work to show longer-term improvements. We saw something similar in Ulster when Richie Murphy took over mid-season. He has the facilities, he’s providing the coaching and the talent is there, evidenced by Ulster’s strong representation across the Irish squad and Ireland XV.
A couple of positive results would see Connacht move back up the table and it would give this Lancaster regime belief to kick on ahead of a more promising season next year.
Zebre away this weekend will provide an opportunity to turn their form around and build on a frustrating, yet enterprising loss at home to Leinster in front of an invigorated crowd.
