Sitting up in the scaffolding that made for the Sky Sports gantry, Alan Quinlan was there to be shot at. Verbally, at least.
The Munster legend smiles as he recalls some of the abuse he copped at The Sportsground, last Saturday, during Connacht’s 35-14 steamroll of his old side.
Quinlan had suggested that Pat Lam’s men were a touch naive for wanting to run ball out of their 22 and attack from all angles. The tactic had failed against Grenoble, in the Challenge Cup, but tore several holes in Munster.
“I had a few Connacht people reminding me of those comments,” Quinlan remarks.
“‘Should we still be conservative?’ they shouted, and, ‘What do you think of that?'”
The former Ireland international still holds true to his belief that Connacht are not the finished article but he is genuinely delighted that they are no longer Ireland’s forgotten province. In fact, Quinlan has paid them the biggest compliment he can think of. He says:
“Before, whenever I played against Connacht, they didn’t really have that pace, attacking ability and that dangerous edge in the outside channels. They do now.
“They are developing that sort of team and it reminds you of Munster.
“We were very direct in the earlier years and when we won the Heineken Cup in 2008, we had Rua Tipoki, Lafemi Mafi, Doug Howlett – a real cutting edge in our backline. When you have that type of quality, then you can develop your game.”
Those backline players impressing Quinlan most? Bundee Aki, Niyi Adeolukon, Matt Healy and Robbie Henshaw.
Comparing Connacht’s current high-flyers to those Munster heroes of 2007/08. Quinlan really is impressed.
*Alan Quinlan was wearing some of the Crivit Pro cycling gear that will be in Lidl stores nationwide from Monday, April 25
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