John Muldoon – one of the senior players in the Connacht squad – made his return from injury as a second half replacement last night, playing 33 minutes in the dismal 43-10 defeat to Edinburgh at Murrayfield.
John Muldoon said that the Connacht players need to take personal responsibility for the poor performance in the Scottish capital and produce a big turnaround against Toulouse in just eight days’ time.
Pat Lam’s men have now lost their last eight RaboDirect PRO12 matches since opening the campaign in September with a round 1 win over Zebre. They also beat the Italian side in the Heineken Cup last month.
Speaking after last night’s four-try loss to Edinburgh, Muldoon said: “The nature of the display and result tonight is very disappointing and it’s hard to take.
“With the quality of players that we have in our squad today, it just isn’t anywhere near good enough. There were some tough words said in the changing room by the players. It’s all true and we all have to take it on board.
“No doubt players at home and fans will be wondering what happened tonight and it’s down to us to fix it. No one else will fix it except the players that walk out on to the pitch.
“We can’t point the finger at anyone. We’ve all got to look in the mirror and say that this was down to a poor, poor performance. Players 1 to 23 have got to front up and admit that we didn’t perform tonight.
“We can’t doll it up any way. We let ourselves down, we let the jersey down and we let our fans down. There are no real excuses.
“We were in the game for long periods and our indiscipline cost us again. You can’t win rugby matches when you’re giving away multiple penalties one after the other.
“So, we’ve a bit of soul searching to do this week. Our backs are to the wall and we’ve got to come back fighting. It’s a massive week for us, the Heineken Cup is back and it doesn’t get any tougher than Toulouse away.
“But I know the quality of player we have and the quality of person inside the dressing room and we will work hard to fix it. There is a real passion there to do well for Connacht and to take pride in the jersey.
“It’s down to us, it’s down to the players. We can’t ask any more of the management. What they gave us is a good game-plan and we just didn’t produce it tonight.”
Commenting on the final stages of the game and the leaking of three tries in eight minutes, Muldoon admitted: “The game was over at that stage and we went searching to try get back into it. We gave them an intercept on our own try-line.
“We were playing to make the scoreline look better and when you’re doing that you get out of your game-plan and structures.
“Other silly errors cost us the game before those last ten minutes. But the scoreline hurts us badly and as I said, we have to get a reaction this week.”
The province’s head coach Lam added: “There’s disappointment and then there’s embarrassment. We started well and had opportunities to score but didn’t. That’s disappointing. But what happened in the last ten minutes, when we let in three soft tries – that’s embarrassing.
“We were playing catch-up rugby at that stage and trying desperate things throwing the ball around. That shouldn’t have happened and we should have been real clear at half-time.
“We have to apologise to the Connacht supporters because this isn’t what we’re about. Strong messages were said at half-time and at the finish by our players.
“But, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what we say if we’re not putting in the performances and getting results.
“We have to take the harsh learnings from tonight and really front up for the back-to-back games against Toulouse.
“No one will give us a chance, and rightly so after that performance. But we have to turn this around and will work so hard to do that.”
Connacht travel to France to play Toulouse in round 3 of the Heineken Cup next Sunday (kick-off 4pm local time/3pm Irish time), before hosting the four-time champions at the Sportsground on the following Saturday (kick-off 6pm).
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