It is not every season, year or decade that Connacht head to Thomond Park and return with a win. That they did on Friday evening for the first time since Pat Lam's tenure and only the third time in history, says something about this squad's developing confidence and tenacity.
There are few victories more special for Connacht than getting one over their inter-provincial rivals. But now to have taken the spoils against Munster in Thomond Park, Ulster in Ravenhill, and Leinster in the RDS in one season is a record Connacht deserve to celebrate.
In turning the tables on Munster who had expected to make it a "clean sweep of interpro victories", coach Andy Friend described it as "the best 80 minutes" he had seen Connacht play since he arrived in 2018.
During that time there have been several big-game victories - particularly that win in Ravenhill after 58 years of defeats. But if Connacht's Achilles' heel is consistency, then their failure to man up physically against Munster has always been deemed another weakness. Not so last weekend.
"To come to Thomond against a pretty good Munster side, you know what lies ahead of you. But jerseys one to 23 stood up, and I thought they were immense. So to walk away from Thomond with a victory is a really proud moment," said Friend.
It had come off the back of a drubbing by Leinster the previous week, prompting Friend to "place a few rockets up people's backsides", and Connacht responded with a "fight and hunger" that had Munster on the hind foot going down the home straight.
"You have to have belief," said Friend. "I have enormous belief in Jimmy Duffy [forwards coach], I have a enormous belief in the set of forwards. They were hurt last week. It was not a nice place to be when you come in from a match and there has been five tries scored pretty much from our maul, and that hurts our pride. What you saw against Munster was the technical brilliance of a Jimmy Duffy with the attitude and pride of these young blokes to come up against probably the best mauling team in the PRO14 and hold them out for most of it."
Among the "young blokes" were man of the match Niall Murray, Cian Prendergast, and top scorer Conor Fitzgerald - Connacht's growing pool of young talent. Considering they were up against the hardened men of Munster, Peter O'Mahony, CJ Stander, Jean Kleyn, James Cronin, Tadhg Beirne, Conor Murray...it reinforced Friend's determination to build strength in depth and give young talent an opportunity to flourish.
"Players need to know that if you don't put in a good performance, there is someone sitting just behind you who is pretty damned good and that competition drives performances."
Crucially, that would help Connacht to continue developing into a winning team, he said.
"We have now beaten Munster - the only team we had not knocked off, so that is always really special for us as a team because in last three years we been oh so close a couple of times. So to eke out that win especially after the week we have had when there have been a lot of doubters, it is going to launch us to another level, which is really exciting."
As always Munster tried to power their way through Connacht, who accepted Friend's challenge to "stand up and fight". Munster replied to an early Fitzgerald penalty when prop James Cronin scored the opening try from a series of forward drives. Yet within two minutes Connacht capitalised on Munster's failure from the restart and Sam Arnold exploited space to race to the corner for the first of Connacht's tries with Fitzgerald converting. The outhalf then added to Connacht's score with a converted try for a 17-7 lead. But as always Munster eventually replied with penalty to touch, maul and a Marshall try to close the gap 17-14.
The game's tit for tat scoring continued. Marmion's superb finish from a Prendergast break kept them in front before Munster had the first of two tries disallowed, the first for obstructing Abraham Papali'i, the second on 70 minutes when TMO Joy Neville spotted a knock-on by D'Allende. In between Munster had closed the gap to seven points with two penalties, and it looked like Munster would use their tried and tested maul to secure victory. On this occasion Munster's lack of composure coupled with Connacht's indefatigable defence that ensured Andy Friend's side deservedly prevailed on a special event in Limerick.
A huge result for Connacht. One to be savoured. One that also must be repeated - and repeated.
Munster: M Gallagher; A Conway, D Goggin, D de Allende, S Daly; B Healy, C Casey; J Cronin, R Marshall, J Ryan; J Kleyn, B Holland; J O’Donoghue, P O’Mahony, CJ Stander. Replacements: C Murray for Casey (blood, 14-28 and 52 ); T Beirne for Holland (52 ); D Kilcoyne for Cronin and S Archer for Ryan (both 59 ); N Scannell for Marshall (60 ); J Carbery for Healy (63 ); K Earls for Gallagher (71 ); F Wycherley for Kleyn (78 ).
Connacht: J Porch; S Arnold, S O’Brien, T Daly, A Wootton; C Fitzgerald, K Marmion; P McAllister, S Delahunt, D Robertson-McCoy; N Murray, U Dillane; C Prendergast, C Oliver, A Papali’i. Replacements: D Buckley for McAllister (9-16 and 39 ); F Bealham for Robertson-McCoy (39 ); S Masterson for Oliver (47 ); J Carty for Fitzgerald (54 ); D Heffernan for Delahunt (56 ); C Blade for Marmion (66 ); E Masterson for Papali’I and P O’Sullivan for Arnold (both 71 ).
Referee: D Jones (WRU ).
