CONNACHT ARE A confident, connected team right now.

Their win over Munster on Saturday was the latest illustration of how Stuart Lancaster’s side have developed into a cohesive and effective team in the second half of this season.

It remains to be seen if they can earn a place in the top eight of the URC by getting something from Friday night’s visit to Edinburgh in the final round of the regular season, but their run of seven wins in eight league games has been compelling.

Their first try on Saturday in Galway was an irresistible team effort that underlined lots of their qualities.

It starts at a midfield scrum that nudges forward, providing a strong platform as Connacht load their entire backline on the right-hand side.

Scrum-half Ben Murphy finds inside centre Bundee Aki as Connacht run a fairly common 9-12 play on first phase.

Munster obviously know that Aki is a big run threat but they have to account for the passing options around him.

Aki can either tip a short pass to centre partner Harry West or go out the back to out-half Josh Ioane, who is swinging behind with left wing Shayne Bolton.

The fact that West and Ioane are genuine options for Aki, timing their runs well to be viable receivers, ensures that Munster out-half JJ Hanrahan has to sit off Aki and trust that scrum-half Craig Casey will get to him.

That means Aki gets a favourable chance to carry and win the gainline.

This is nothing out of the ordinary but we can see above how well-timed everything is from Connacht, with West initially slowing his feet before accelerating as he gives Aki time to run at the line with the ball in two hands. 

Connacht play to their right again on second phase as number eight Sean Jansen carries off an inside pass from Ioane, then second row Darragh Murray makes a carry infield as part of Connacht’s three-man pod of forwards.

Aki [red below] is set up in the boot behind that three-man pod, offering Murray an option out the back.

It’s also worth noting that tighthead Sam Illo and lock Josh Murphy [blue above], who form the pod with Murray, have their hands up and ready to receive a pass from Murray if required, as well as drawing some defensive attention in their direction.

Aki recognises that he’s not needed at the breakdown and begins to organise the next phase, calling a play and scanning the defence.

The next layer of Connacht’s phase-play attack sees Aki set up with a two-man pod [yellow below] outside him, while Ioane [pink] has swung from the right-hand side to set up in the boot behind them.

Right wing Shane Jennings is even providing another option by running a late short line just off scrum-half Murphy below.

What Aki does here is ‘split’ the two-man pod, with loosehead prop Billy Bohan cutting underneath him to offer a switch option, while hooker Dylan Tierney-Martin runs short off Aki.

Again, the important thing is that everyone is a genuine option.

Because Tierney-Martin times his run outside Aki well, Munster’s Diarmuid Barron has to respect that possible short pass.

Barron can’t simply swim past Tierney-Martin early, getting a head start in dealing with Ioane.

And because Barron has to hold on Tierney-Martin initially, that means Ioane will be able to threaten the inside shoulder of Munster’s Tom Ahern.

As Ioane darts into that space between Barron and Ahern, he has two passing options on his outside.

West is running another well-timed short line off Ioane, giving himself space to accelerate and punch onto the ball. Meanwhile, fullback Sam Gilbert, who has worked hard to swing from right to left, is out the back.

Putting it all together, this play shows us the connected nature of the Connacht attack as Jennings, Aki and the two-man pod tie in defenders before Ioane hits West at the front door, with West then offoading to Gilbert accelerating up on his outside shoulder.

Gilbert is in behind Munster and though Casey’s covering tackle fells him, the Connacht fullback bounces back up and fights for a few more metres before Tierney-Martin makes an efficient one-man clearout.

Jennings has worked over to the left-hand side of play.

Connacht’s wings tend to get heavily involved in their phase play, getting infield to ensure their power and punch in contact can be harnessed.

In this instance, Jennings and Bolton actually end up alongside each other.

With Connacht keen to keep their momentum going after the Gilbert thrust, Murphy finds Jennings and he makes a direct carry with a latch and clearout from Bolton.

Over on the right, meanwhile, Connacht have formed a three-man pod, with Ioane in the boot.

And now we see another element of variety, as well as how viable players are as options within Connacht’s shapes.

This time, second row Josh Murphy tips on a pass to Murray.

Again, the back who starts in behind bursts up onto the outside shoulder, which means Murray can offload to Ioane.

Munster’s Edwin Edogbo reads the offload and closes in on Ioane, but the Connacht out-half spins to find another offload to hard-working flanker Cian Prendergast.

As Connacht now look back towards their left, Murray and Bohan have formed a two-man pod, which Murphy is moving to join as well.

While they’re setting up to carry off Murphy, we can see a trio of the Connacht backs – Aki, Jennings, and West – swinging from right to left once again as they continue to search for overloads.

In this instance, Murphy fizzes the ball across Murray to Bohan, who darts at the line but crucially holds the ball in two hands at first, suggesting he could swivel late and drop the ball off for Aki swinging behind him. 

That makes it more difficult for Munster’s defence to read his ball-carrying intent, and Bohan accelerates in between Michael Ala’alatoa and Jeremy Loughman.

Having got in behind as he fires up a right-hand fend, Bohan has the ball free and offloads to Murray.

Connacht roll on towards the Munster line.

Aki and co. have set up on the left, with Tierney-Martin offering the short line off Aki. The Connacht centre uses that front-door option this time, with Ahern bringing Tierney-Martin to the ground.

As Connacht now look back infield to their right, Munster err in their discipline.

The ball is a little messy for Murphy at the base of the ruck, with Edogbo and Coombes misreading that it’s out before it actually is.

They edge up offside and a penalty advantage follows for Connacht as Murphy hits Jansen in the three-man pod for a carry.

The two other players in that pod, Murphy and Bohan, ensure it’s another quick recycle.

As Jansen fights to keep going forward, tackler Ala’alatoa also stays in the tackle, firmly gripping the Connacht number eight to make sure he goes to ground.

As we can see above, Barron and Loughman fold to the far side for Munster and Fineen Wycherley decides to hold.

But the problem is that Murphy has spotted his chance, with Ala’alatoa on the ground and out of the game.

Because it’s very quick ball for Connacht, there’s now a chance back on their left.

As Murphy glances there, scanning for any openings, he can see that Ahern is just getting back to his feet and has plenty of space to close up to Wycherley. 

Importantly for Murphy, his team-mates are up on their feet on that side of the pitch, providing him with passing options.

That means that as Ahern gets up and assesses the situation, he also has to worry about those Connacht players in front of him.

So, as we see below, Ahern advances towards Gilbert at first receiver, hoping that Ala’alatoa and/or Wycherley will be able to deal with the threat of Murphy.

But Ala’alatoa ends up impeding Wycherley as he tries to chase Murphy, who dummies a pass before accelerating into space.

It’s a satisfying score for Connacht, whose constant array of options and the genuine viability of each crack the Munster defence over the course of nine phases and around 70 seconds of play.

This is a Connacht team who are playing with great connection on both sides of the ball.

We will find out this weekend whether they have play-off rugby ahead of them, but you can be sure that if they make the quarter-finals, they will prove to be handful for whoever draws them at home.