2016 Pro12 Championship: Connacht's Historic Triumph

On May two thousand and sixteen, Connect, one of the original rugby teams of the Pro twelve League, which is one of the top rugby leagues in the world, not only makes its first playoff appearance, but wins the entire championship. Here's the story behind it. Today on Daily Sports History, Welcome Todayly Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day, and today's trivia question is what country did Connect's coach Pat Lame come from. Now, rugby as a sport deserves its own episode, but we'll give you a brief overview of how it all began and why it's important in the Ireland and England area. It all started back in eighteen forty five when the first laws were written by the students attending the rugby school in Workshire, England, which is how it got the name Rugby based off the school's name. And every year the game grew as they played it against local schools and those schools played against other schools, and as a domino effect, it grew and grew and now almost ten million people play the sport today across the world. But just like all sports, the game has changed and adapted through the years, through safety and rule changes and through the slow popularity. Over the last thirty years, professional rugby has grown even stronger. Now there's roughly eight major rugby leagues throughout the world, in no particular. There's the European Challenge Cup, which is focused in England and France, the Japan Rugby League, the Super Pacific League which contains the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia, the Premiership which is the only full pro England league, the European champions Cup and the Top Fourteen which is the top French league. And the United Rugby Championship, which is what the Pro twelve became. So let's focus on the United Rugby Championship and just for the rest of the episode, we're gonna call it Pro twelve. As in twenty sixteen when the story takes place, it is called the Pro twelve, but it's changed its same multiple times and currently it's focused in Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. South Africa was included in the twenty sixteen portion. Now, the league actually started back to nineteen ninety nine. It was the Welsh and Scottish League and then two years later it become Celtic League when they included Ireland, Scotland and Wales. And they continue to grow and in two thousand and six they got their first league wide sponsor, Magners, which was a cider man in Ireland. And then in twenty ten they grew from ten teams to twelve teams when they added two Italian teams, and they changed their name again that year to the Pro twelve and they were sponsored by Robo Direct, and they continued to grow even after the twenty sixteen season we're going to focus on they've been called the Pro fourteen and were sponsored by Guinness. In twenty twenty one they rebranded to the United Rugby Championship, which they are known today. Now. How the format of the league works is they all play each other multiple times and they keep a point system similar to a point system in hockey, keeping track of school scored goals against, point differential and wins and losses of course as well. In twenty sixteen they were having the World Cup champion for Rugbeak, which meant a lot of the players that played in the league were playing for their countries. But Kinnect didn't have many players playing for their countries, so they were able to train even better than the regular teams and it helped them get ready for the season and have such a great season. Also helped that a few years earlier they had hired Pat Lame who was a Samoa international coach who was from New Zealand and really helped change their fortune around. He slowly helped make the team better every year until they finally got over that hump, made the playoffs and had the chance to win it all. So in twenty sixteen, the top two teams were Leinster and Connect. Keep in mind Leinster was a powerhouse in the league and Connect had never made the playoffs before even though they were one of the original members of the league. But they both finished with seventy three points for the season and there was a four team playoffs where the number one seed we played number four and number two would played number three. So Leinster played Ulster in the first round of the playoffs, beating them thirty to eighteen, and Connect played the Glasgow Warriors and fought out for a sixteen to eleven win. So the grand finale was all set to go on May twenty eighth, twenty sixteen when Murrayfield Stadium in Scotland, and heading into the Gameleinesster were favorites to win four to nine by most of the sportsbooks. Now going into the final match, Connect were missing three of their top players, but Linster wasn't going in fully healthy as they were missing their captain for that year, so both teams were banged up and bruised going into this game. But Connect started out strong as they made their first try thirteen minutes into the game, running all the way across to the left corner, breaking through the defense, giving them the lead seven to zero, but Lionesster couldn't catch a break. They lost two more players during the first half. Then Connect came back again with a high kick and chase to go over the right corner and increase their lead twelve to zero, and twenty seven minutes into the half, Connect kicked a penalty, increasing their lead to fifteen to zero as they went into the half. Despite being down so much, Leinster didn't make any replacements at the half and they put up a good fight. They opened up with the penalty on the forty third minute, giving them three points, but Connect came back with another try at the fifty seventh minute, their lead twenty to three and the game was all but done and they finished the game with the final score of twenty ten. And this was the first major trophy win for Connect in their one hundred and thirty one year history. They had been a pro team since nineteen ninety nine, but an amateur team since all the way back in the eighteen hundreds. After this, the next day, they rode back through their hometown of Galloway City on an open topped bus, paraded by all of their fans, cheering for their first championship win ever. And what we can take away from Connect is despite never making it to the playoffs and always being the lovable loser, they never let that get them down. They always kept fighting, their fans were always behind them, and even without playoff experience, they didn't back down from the situation. Often we are nervous in new situations, but give it, you're all and you're more likely to succeed, just like Connected for their first major championship trophy ever, and maybe you'll get your first trophy as well. And at worst you'll have no regrets. And you won't have any regrets if you follow and subscribe wherever you're listening, and come back tomorrow for more daily sports history. And did you catch the answer to today's trivic question, what country did Connect's coach Pat Lame come from? The answer? New Zealand