Vodacom Bulls coach Jake White may have raised the ire of Connacht supporters when he referred to them as being a team that draw from the leftovers of Irish rugby but to be fair, he wasn’t too far from the point.
While the Galway faithful would have taken it as a personal slight, Connacht is the smallest of the Irish provinces and has only 8 percent of the national population, giving it a smaller base of players to draw from.
While Dublin and Leinster see the cream of the schools players being recruited, White’s comments perhaps were ill-timed, but it did underline the passion of a province that can be as turbulent as its weather.
Anyone who has been to Galway will know the blustery winds and rain can easily take over a match at the Sportsgrounds, and the Connacht fighting spirit that comes through these conditions is often their biggest ally in matches.
While the province is a hub of Irish sports such as Gaelic football and Hurling, Rugby does pretty well and Connacht have earned themselves a reputation as a nuggety, hard-nosed team that is never easy to beat, especially on their home ground.
Their battle with the 2007 Springbok team in the warm-up to the World Cup was a perfect example of how while they were outmuscled, they made life very difficult for the Boks and eventually lost with a lot of heart, making the eventual World Champions look ordinary at times.
Cape Town-born Henry Anderson was the first Connacht player to receive an Ireland cap, making his debut against England on 14 February 1903. Anderson later went on to be one of the founders of Galwegians, and became the first Connacht branch representative to serve as president of the IRFU.
When Rugby went professional, Connacht didn’t make the grade for the first Heineken Cup, but were included in the European Challenge Cup, where they were coached by British & Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland at the time. They finished fourth in their first season. In 1997/8 season they finished top of their group and under Gatland they became the first professional Irish team to beat an English team in England and French team in France, but ultimately lost in the quarterfinals, after which Gatland became the Irish coach.
South African Steph Nel coached them in 2000-1 with limited success and Connacht almost closed down in 2003 when the Irish Rugby Union threatened to shut them down because of costs. This was averted when a public protest with 2,000 fans marching on the IRFU headquarters in Dublin, coupled with the possibility of a strike by the Irish Rugby Union Players Association, forced the IRFU to reverse course and maintain the team
Under Pat Lam as coach, n 28 May 2016, a 20–10 win against Leinster in the Pro12 final gave Connacht their first ever major trophy and was a major upset at the time and their biggest win to date.
Their current squad includes Irish internationals such as Bundee Aki, Jack Carty and Finlay Beatham, while overseas players to have graced the jersey include All Black Mils Muliaina, Marnitz Boshoff and Australians Kyle Godwin and Colby Fainga’a