The debate raged as to whether losing by nine points was, to invoke modern-day sporting parlance, "a result". Various Connacht players remained peeved that but for a late try the leeway in two weeks' time would only have been four points.

But then they thought of the Sportsground, a 6,000 capacity and the latest instalment of the "biggest game in their history" saga. And they smiled.

Michael Bradley put it in perspective best. "I suppose to come away from a match having conceded four tries and still be only nine points behind in terms of the aggregate score, in that sense we're happy enough. It's a tough place to come to. I thought Harlequins played very, very well. They scored some smashing tries, plenty of speed. None of that is a surprise to us, it's just that they're a very, very good side.

"I suppose it's a challenge for us now. Harlequins have a nine-point advantage coming to the Sportsground, so it will be teed up nicely. Get the Connacht crowd behind us, and win by 10 points," he said mischievously.

"We do other things right as well. Not all of them came off today so there might be a few elements of surprise on our part."

Bradley admitted his team couldn't get their hands on the ball sufficiently in the opening exchanges and at the endgame, "but when we got some continuity going we were very competitive then, and we forced a number of penalties out of the Harlequins defence, so if they hadn't conceded so many penalties then perhaps we could have scored more tries".

By half-time, the penalty count in Connacht's favour was 10-5, and only a spate of late penalties to the home side reduced the ratio to 17-12 by the finish. The vast majority were at the breakdown, where Giulio de Santis was particularly severe on players not releasing the ball, although Quins upped the ante, especially captain and openside Andre Vos, by either not rolling away in the tackle or playing the ball on the ground.

Hence, the sight of Connacht replacement Mike McCarthy being binned when the penalty count was around 3-2 against Harlequins, which contributed to the potentially critical late try by Will Greenwood, annoyed Bradley.

"It was very disappointing based on the aggregate penalties that we got a guy sin-binned and a lot of the penalties went against Harlequins for that same, particular offence (playing the ball on the ground)," he said. "It was quite frustrating."

His counterpart, a contented looking Marc Evans, was livid with the Italian referee's interpretation of the breakdown area, but overall reckoned a nine-point lead was about par.

"Somebody asked me today what do you think the spread would be and I said that if I was setting the market I'd have gone 8 to 11. They don't get it wrong very very often, otherwise we (the punters) would make a lot more money.

"I think that's pretty much par. Which means the tie will still be very much alive going to Galway. I didn't think for a minute that we'd run away with it from home."