As the crowd of 12,500 exited Dexcom Stadium on Saturday night, a sense of euphoria filled the air.
Connacht’s newly upgraded stadium is conveniently located just a short walk from the lively Eyre Square area. After watching their dynamic young team decisively defeat Munster, the local fans likely extended their celebrations into the early hours amid the bustling bars and pubs that line the quaint cobbled streets.
Buzzing: Supporters run onto the pitch in Galway to congratulate the players
Connacht is currently experiencing a surge of excitement. Their commanding 26-7 victory over their provincial adversaries marked their seventh triumph in eight matches, indicating that the Westerners have found their stride at an ideal moment.
With only six days to prepare for a Friday night showdown against Edinburgh at Hive Stadium, Connacht is poised for another challenge. The Scottish team, sitting 12th in the URC standings, has had a tough season, and it remains uncertain how fiercely they will defend their home ground.
In control: Stuart Lancaster prepares his players before the win over Munster
Connacht, on the other hand, approaches this match with confidence, aiming for another league victory that could propel them into playoff contention and secure their place in the Champions Cup.
For Ulster and Cardiff, both with 50 points, and Munster with 51, the upcoming week promises to be tense and filled with anticipation.
Cardiff face the Stormers on Friday night while Ulster welcome Glasgow, the league leaders, the same evening. An injury-ravaged Munster will entertain the Lions, the URC’s surprise package this term, to Thomond Park the following night. None of those fixtures are gimmes and, should any of that trio slip up, Connacht are primed for a late surge into the knockout stages.
In form: Sean Jansen on the charge for Connacht in the win over Munster
It would be well deserved. This Connacht side deserve to feature at the business end of this competition. If they do manage it, it would no surprise if they replicated the historic feats of the class of 2016 and went to win the whole thing. Connacht are playing that well at the moment.
And you can trace this resurgence out west to the influence of Stuart Lancaster.
Connacht had fallen on hard times before the affable Englishman landed in Galway last summer.
Pete Wilkins, who had succeed the popular Andy Friend as head coach, had struggled in the top job. The province had finished 13th and 11th in the previous two URC campaigns on his watch.
Tyro: Young prop Sam Illo celebrates with veteran out-half Jack Carty
Most gallingly, Connacht had seemingly lost a lot of their identity. That swashbuckling, all-court mentality had seeped away. A team which always punched above its weight had lost its edge. The ‘give it a lash’ mentality of the Pat Lam and Friend years had dissipated. And there were tough questions about the mental strength and commitment of this playing group. Unless it was a grudge match against one of their provincial rivals, Connacht seemed to go missing a lot in routine URC games.
But there was hope that better days were ahead. The newly-revamped stadium, with the expanded Clan Stand, was nearing completion. Ditto, a state-of-the-art high-performance facility.
All Connacht needed was a top-class coach to steer the ship in the right direction. The fanbase couldn’t quite believe it when Lancaster was confirmed as the new boss.
This, after all, was an operator with a proven track record. His transformative seven-year spell with Leinster is the stuff of legend at this stage. That brilliant spell in Dublin was bookended by difficult times as England and Racing 92 head coach, but Lancaster learned heaps from those experiences.
The 56-year-old has brought all that coaching knowledge and wisdom to this operation. It took a bit of time for Lancaster to bed down his ideas, but he has this team humming now.
A big part of the plan was backing the province’s own pathways. Lancaster doubled down on that point after he watched his Connacht team suffer a 34-point hammering at the hands of Leinster in January.
‘For me, Connacht have got a great group of young players coming through and we have to have the confidence to give them opportunities to play. If we don’t then we’re storing trouble for further down the line,’ the former Leinster senior coach said at the time.
‘I see my challenge as to win here and now but at the same time put strong foundations in place with the way we train, with the young players, but recognising as well that we need a strong senior group to see them through.
‘That’s what Leinster do really well: they bring lads in from the bottom end as lads drop out of the top end. If you look at the cycle of where our squad is, that is an example of what will happen at the end of this season because we need to bring young players through.
‘We ideally need to bring more quality in and in some ways reduce the size of the squad at the moment and actually trust young players more.
‘That’s the goal because I’ve come from Leinster and I know it’s a model that works and so you have to put them in at some point.’
Vintage class: Having a player of the status of Bundee Aki is a massive boost
Lancaster has delivered on that plan. Billy Bohan (20), Harry West (23), Darragh Murray (25), Shane Jennings (25) and Sean Naughton (22) are all products of the academy. All five featured against Munster last weekend. Young tighthead Fiachra Barrett, aka ‘Big Red’ is another one to watch. The likes of Sam Illo, Ben Murphy, Josh Murphy and Paul Boyle came through the Leinster system, but they are thriving at Connacht.
There has been shrewd investment in the overseas market, with the Kiwi quartet of Shamus Hurley-Langton, Sean Jansen, Josh Ioane and Sam Gilbert all thriving in Galway.
And there are serious reinforcements on the way this summer, with Ciaran Frawley, Will Connors and Jerry Cahir making the switch from Leinster, while powerful South African prop Francois van Wyk is arriving from Bath.
Connacht have managed all of this without Mack Hansen, their Ireland and Lions star who has been sidelined with a serious foot injury since November. Hugh Gavin, Cathal Forde, Dave Heffernan and Caolin Blade – who are all products of Connacht’s pathway system – are all currently sidelined, too.
Indeed, Connacht have so much quality at scrum-half that the highly-rated Matthew Devine is leaving to join Ulster.
Lancaster is building a serious squad alright. They have the facilities and the support base. They are well coached. And they are moving in the right direction.
This late-season charge to the URC playoffs is just the beginning, and Connacht have Lancaster to thank for it.
