Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FAREWELL LEGEND
Connacht hero signs off with record rout of Blues
CONNACHT produced their best performance in years to send John Muldoon off in style.
The Sportsground went wild as Connacht stormed to a seven try to one rout of the understrength Champions Cup finalists
And the retiring Muldoon signed off by kicking a penalty to touch to set the seal on a record win over Leinster.
Afterwards he said: “Never in my wildest dreams did I expect 47-10. I thought I was in dreamland when we won the Pro12 by 20-10. But a phenomenal performance by the lads.
“If we get a little bit more consistent we can beat anyone on our day. But consistency is the key. I am delighted for the lads. I am delighted they showed a performance to the crowd and to everybody.
“It’s a great send-off. It’s been a rollercoaster here all of my life. It certainly was again today. What a way to sign off.”
Leinster made 15 changes to the team which defeated Scarlets in the Champions Cup semi-final and knew there was every chance of struggling to hold a fired-up Connacht.
And the home side didn’t disappoint in the Galway sunshine, blitzing the Blues from the start and hitting the front after three minutes of constant pressure from the kick-off.
It took 21 phases of possession to yield the try the home crowd were baying for, with quick hands across to the right through Kieran Marmion, Jack Carty, Tom Farrell and Tiernan O’Halloran putting Niyi Adeolokun over in the right corner.
Carty converted and while Joey Carbery pulled back a penalty after 13 minutes, the rest of the opening half belonged to Connacht.
Muldoon lifted the crowd with a lineout steal on 24 minutes can Connacht deservedly increased their lead five minutes later.
Leinster tried to build from deep but James Lowe’s pass was intercepted in midfield by O’Halloran, who cantered home from 30 metres, with Carty’s conversion making it 14-3.
The impressive Connacht hooker Shane Delahunt created the third try seven minutes from the interval when he burst through and Marmion scored under the posts and Carty converted again.
Any notion of a Leinster comeback ended shortly after the break when Delahunt executed another superb turnover and the attack from deep ended with the hooker supplying the final pass for Adeolokun to race down the right and secure the bonus point try.
It got even better on 50 minutes when Carty chipped neatly on the ten-metre line for O’Halloran to secure possession and slip the ball for Marmion to race through and score his second try under the posts.
Leinster began bringing in artillery off the bench and when O’Halloran tried to slap a crossfield kick back inside to Matt
Healy, Barry Daly seized the chance to race in and score.
Carbery added the difficult conversion to cut the gap to 33-10 after
54 minutes.
Muldoon showed no sign of tiring and another turnover from him in midfield started a move which ended with Bundee Aki bulldozing over.
Craig Ronaldson added the points and it didn’t end there, with replacement scrum-half Caolin Blade nipping through for their seventh try four minutes from time.
That set up the moment of the day as Muldoon stepped forward to take the conversion and, in the dying moments of his 327th game, made it 47-10 to send the crowd of 8,125 wild.