Peter Jackson column: Connacht haven’t lost hunger to retain title

Even when the whole of Galway let its collective hair down for days and nights on end, John Muldoon never lost sight of the next goal. The local lad who rose through the ranks from private to Field Marshal of Connacht‘s metamorphosis from chopping blocks into champions of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy kept a sobering thought at the back of his mind.
“We had a good week or two, all right,” he said, beaming at the memory of the riotous reception when his team brought the Guinness Pro12 trophy home on that last weekend of May.
“Success for the first time in the club’s history was wonderful but we knew we couldn’t enjoy ourselves too much.
“We knew that soon enough the pre-season would come round and we’d have to be in shape. My old body can’t take too much time off or it’ll cease up! In terms of body fat measurements, we all came back in pretty good shape.”
The Pro12’s Dublin launch at the Aviva Stadium brought Muldoon a glowing reminder of how times have changed. Instead of taking his place towards the back of the supporting cast, he turned up this time as captain of the champs – the Main Man.
Muldoon has never been one for lying on his laurels, even if until recently Connacht had none to lie on. Now that he finds himself surrounded by a whole shrubbery of them, he will not be changing the habit of a lifetime.
“Almost from the day we won the trophy, we’ve been wanting to back this up by winning it again,” he says. “You taste a bit of success after so many years without any and you get greedy.
“You want to experience it again – the big days out, the massive challenges, the feel-good factor. We all want to be back here for the final next May.
“I have been to these season launches too many times. You’d see other teams getting most of the attention because of their success and the jealousy would stir in the pit of your stomach.
“Now we’ve flipped that on its head, suddenly we are the ones with a title to defend.
“As champions there will be some pressure. That means we have to get better but we knew that anyway. The competition is so fierce that if we play as we did last season, we will fall short.
“At the final at Murrayfield, we had nearly 20 lads standing on the sidelines in suits, every one of them Connacht players. When we worry about complacency creeping in, we think of those 20 lads.
“Because you know that everyone of them is saying to himself, ‘I’m not going to be standing in the crowd at the next final, I want to be part of something big’.
“There would be a feeling maybe among some people that we might not be as hungry the next time around. Not true. We’re as hungry as we’ve ever been.”
Pat Lam has seen to that. The Kiwi of Samoan heritage who won the English Premiership as a player with Newcastle almost 20 years ago will hope to refine the handling and passing skills that made Connacht so refreshingly different.
Contrary to public opinion, there is not a ban on kicking the ball but anyone doing it badly will have to answer to Muldoon on the pitch and Lam off it. The head coach claims, with some justification, that in terms of resources, budgets and facilities, Ireland’s western province come 12 out of the Pro12.
If that makes them improbable champions, Lam expects his unlikely lads to be even better this time around, or else. “If we have the ball, they can’t score,” he says. “So we put a massive emphasis on our skills and we will try to up-skill more this season.”
They start by hosting the match of the opening round against Glasgow Warriors, the holders against their immediate predecessors.
In showing them all the way home last season, Connacht showed up the four Welsh regions as serious under-achievers.
None of the quartet made the play-offs. Only the Scarlets, finished in the top half, leaving them to carry the Welsh flag into the Champions’ Cup. As for the Dragons, low expectations are all the lower for Taulupe Faletau’s exit to Bath.
The Blues, improving under Danny Wilson’s direction, and the Ospreys, rebuilding under Steve Tandy, will settle for nothing less than the top six – no easy task given the presence of Ireland’s four provinces and the team that has won more Pro12 matches in the last five years than any other, Glasgow’s splendidly consistent Warriors.