Connacht 20 Leinster 10
Not even Connacht’s storied season could have scripted a better ending than this. By the end, their momentum, on and off the pitch, was unstoppable and the reigning champions having been dethroned, the tornado all but engulfed Leinster, league kingpins and standardbearers. By the end, no one could live with this green machine.
They were that good and, given the circumstances, saved their best until last. The culmination of three years’ work and an increasingly potent campaign culminated in a joyously adventurous and wonderfully executed brand of rugby. Under sapphire blue skies, this was how to win a final.
As the Connacht players completed their lap of honour in a sun-drenched evening in Edinburgh to the backdrop of We Are The Champions, only those clad in green populated the stands. Finally they stopped off in front of those in the East Stand, players picking out loved ones in the throngs for a quick embrace, before one last rendition of The Fields of Athenry. Just for one perfect day, this field belonged to Connacht.
One to tell the grandchildren about.
Revelling in the wide open spaces of Murrayfield, Connacht made the pitch look big.
Buzz of anticipation
Every time Niyi Adeolokun, Matt Healy or Tiernan O'Halloran touched the ball there was a buzz of anticipation. The Connacht back three, none of whom have been picked for the South African tour, had 19 league tries this season going into this game. Leinster's back three, all of whom are bound for the Southern Hemisphere, had just two, although this tells us more about the way the two sides approach the game.
Fittingly, the Connacht trio with brio finished it with one more apiece as they shared Connacht’s three tries, thus taking their combined tally in the league to 22.
The first was an adroit finish by O’Halloran, which originated from Healy’s counter, and quick hands from Bundee Aki, who drew defenders onto him.
The second was an opportunist chip, kick, catch and finish by Adeolokun after superb offloading by Robbie Henshaw, O'Halloran, Aki and Marmion.
The third, as Leinster threatened a second-half comeback, originated in John Muldoon targeting the ball in the tackle and a breezy break-out from deep by Marmion, which was continued by Tom McCartney stepping Jack McGrath, before Healy finished from AJ MacGinty's delicious grubber.
There’s always space on a rugby pitch, and in this league no one locates it better than Connacht.
But as the clear-out for that first try by O’Halloran showed, for the back three to have a licence to counter attack requires a like-minded attitude and work-rate from their teammates.
“Those boys when they’re on the ball, when they carry, it’s what the off-the-ball boys do, and that’s the key,” stressed Pat Lam afterwards. “You can run the ball back but if you don’t have that clean-out on the back of that, then we don’t have any shape after that and we’re asking for trouble.
“And those back three boys have real confidence because, A, I tell them to run and you want them to have a go, but B, if anyone’s walking, they all know if I see anyone walking when a ball’s kicked then they’re telling me that ‘I need more fitness work’. So every time a ball goes up I’m checking whose walking and who is running.
“The boys know that but they work to a shape so that they can pure counter-attack. And I set the guys a goal to make Connacht one of the best counter-attacking teams,
“I think it’s allowed them to express themselves. Are they better than players that may be above them? You know, I don’t know but the number one thing is that they get a chance to express themselves and I think that’s the key. Rugby’s a game where guys just have to have a chance to express that, but it’s a team game.
“Those guys could get onto another team and play a different sort of shape and structure and they could be average, but in fairness everyone shares the workload and everyone gets a chance to shine. And I think that’s why we had seven guys in that dream team, they all got there on the back of the work they do. They can shine.”
Defend voraciously
Leinster didn’t go quietly into the night, and helped by the impact of Seán Cronin and Zane Kirchner off the bench, the former scored one try and the latter had another disallowed for a marginal forward pass. But as Connacht have also shown in the business end of the season, they can defend voraciously for each other too.
Connacht actually had to make more tackles in withstanding Leinster's array of one-off runners and less frequent excursions out wide, to complete 185 tackles out of 195. The departing Aly Muldowney, a candidate for their player of the season with his play-making cum ball-winning, led the way with 20 tackles, followed by Aki and, remarkably, Ronan Loughney on 17, and MacGinty, who also put his body on the line, on 16.
By contrast, Leinster missed 31 out of 163, with Connacht making 10 line breaks to two (seven coming from the back three).
If man-of-the-match Muldoon embodies Connacht’s transformation from the downtrodden to champions, then Ultan Dillane typifies their new winning breed, and he put in a monumental hour, clattering into anything in white whether in his carries or his hits or his clear-outs. But in truth there wasn’t a weak link in the chain.
Cometh the final, cometh the men. Not only have Connacht proved themselves worthy champions and the best team in the Pro12, but they have also been the best to watch.
Scoring sequence: 13 mins: O'Halloran try, MacGinty con 7-0; 22: Adeolokun try 12-0; 28: MacGinty pen 15-0; (half-time 15-0); 43: Sexton pen 15-3; 57: Healy try 20-3; 68: Cronin try, Sexton con 20-10.
CONNACHT: Tiernan O'Halloran; Niyi Adeolokun, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, Matt Healy; AJ MacGinty, Kieran Marmion; Ronan Loughney, Tom McCartney, Finlay Bealham, Ultan Dillane, Aly Muldowney, Eoin McKeon, Jake Heenan, John Muldoon (capt). Replacements: Sean O'Brien for McKeon (half-time), John Cooney for Marmion (61 mins), Andrew Browne for Dillane (62 mins), Peter Robb for John Cooney (66 mins), Rodney Ah You for Loughney (68 mins), Shane O'Leary for O'Halloran (69-72 mins), Dave Heffernan for McCartney (74 mins). Not used: JP Cooney.
LEINSTER: Rob Kearney; Dave Kearney, Garry Ringrose, Ben Te'o, Luke Fitzgerald; Jonathan Sexton, Eoin Reddan; Jack McGrath, Richardt Strauss, Mike Ross, Ross Molony, Mick Kearney, Rhys Ruddock, Jordi Murphy, Jamie Heaslip (capt). Replacements: Hayden Triggs for M Kearney (17 mins), Sean Cronin for Strauss, Tadhg Furlong for Ross (both 42 mins), Luke McGrath for Reddan (58 mins), Zane Kirchner for Rob Kearney (61 mins), Jack Conan for Moloney (64 mins), Peter Dooley for McGrath (73 mins), Ian Madigan for Dave Kearney (76 mins).
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
