Loyalty to Lam helped put his weekly critics in their place
Connacht have proven to be the Leicester of the PRO12 with deconstruction of the accustomed order
LONG before their 20-10 triumph over Leinster in Saturday’s PRO12 final, Connacht’s progress this season had been likened to that of Leicester City in the Barclays Premier League. In match after match, this improbable tale of success against the odds was expected to end. Week after week, we awaited the restoration of the accustomed order. And in match after match, week after week, we were proven wrong.
There are differences, of course, between the rugby team and the football club. For a start, the financial and sporting forces ranged against Connacht were nowhere near as formidable as the ones faced by Leicester. And, by the same token, Connacht have had nothing like the resources enjoyed by Leicester, who splashed out a mere £54million to assemble their squad.
If there is one real point of similarity between the two, other than the fact that both were underdogs in their respective competitions, it surely lies in their two head coaches. Pat Lam, like Claudio Ranieri had been deemed a failure in some quarters when he took over at Connacht three seasons ago. But given the time to make some shrewd recruiting and to mould his squad into the shape he wanted, the former Samoa international has proven himself to be a worthy successor to Glasgow Warriors’ Gregor Townsend as the PRO12 coach of the year.
Bundee Aki was the crucial addition, of course, and without the New Zealander Connacht would surely not have won their first title. But Lam’s achievement was not so much signing up the centre as ensuring that the team as a whole became greater than the sum of its parts.
Granted, there are outstanding individuals as well as Aki. Ultan Dillane, the 22-year-old lock forward who was quite magnificent in the first half at Murrayfield, should go on to become one of the outstanding second rows in the game. Stand-off AJ MacGinty, who played for the USA against Scotland at the Rugby World Cup, has brought a keen intelligence to the team’s game plan. But above all, success has come about as a result of Lam’s ability to get every member of the squad to excel themselves, and to adhere to his style of running rugby.
Lam himself is in no doubt that this need not be a one-off for Connacht – and this is where Ranieri, were he ruthlessly honest about his own club’s prospects, might have a different analysis. “It’s realistic for us to try and win it again,” the former Scotland assistant said an hour or so after his captain, John Muldoon, had lifted the trophy in front of a record crowd for the final at BT Murrayfield.
And so it is, provided they remain true to their playing principles, bring in suitable replacements for those players who are leaving, and – crucially – hold on to Lam. There are already gaps.
Robbie Henshaw, Aki’s partner in midfield and like Dillane still only 22, has been recruited by Leinster for next season. MacGinty, who only made his debut in November, is off to Sale.
And as for Lam? “I’m excited by where I could be in five years’ time,” he said – far from a revelation that he has itchy feet right now, yet still an indication that his ambitions will not be restricted. Born in Auckland, and having been coach of the Blues for three years up to 2012, he surely has unfinished business in his own country. Before that, however, he may well move on to a club in England or France, or even to an international post with one of the Six Nations teams.
For Leo Cullen, this was a deeply disappointing end to his first season as Leinster’s head coach, but he still found time to praise his opponents. “They’ve built towards this point, made small improvements every year,” he said. “Hats off to them. It’s been a pretty incredible three years.”
Those three years have also been an example to every other coach in the PRO12 about how much can be done on a limited budget – and it is a timely example, too, given that most if not all teams will have smaller squads next season. Still, while coaches may not envy Lam his lack of money, some – Townsend and Edinburgh counterpart Alan Solomons among them – may look longingly at his autonomy.
And the problems seem sure to be exacerbated by the ending of an agreement between Scottish Rugby and London Scottish which would have seen around ten young Edinburgh and Glasgow professionals farmed out to the English Championship side. Those players will now have to acquire experience at a lower level, thus hampering efforts to bring through the next generation.