Aly Muldowney could have been found on the other side of the Irish Sea in his native Stafford, at two-and-a-bit well into the tricky process of finding his feet - another Connacht colossus in the making.
The formidable trio were to be found in the front, second and back rows of Connacht's pack in Limerick last Saturday - the only three of the starting XV not to have been born after their amateur predecessors of the mid-Eighties did the business in the name of the grand old inter-provincial championship.
Way back then they did it under the leadership of Ireland's Five Nations' title winning captain from the previous year, Ciaran Fitzgerald from Loughrea in Co. Galway. The perennial underdogs succeeded against the odds and against a Munster team with Irish internationals coming out of their ears - Michael Kiernan, Moss Finn, Ralph Keyes, Michael Bradley, Donal Lenihan, Brian Spillane and Pat O'Hara to name but seven.
Connacht won 11-9. As the years turned into decades and Ireland's western province kept falling in Munster's citadel, the victory acquired a stature which grew with every defeat.
Muldoon, for instance, had made twelve abortive visits which only goes to show that he is not a man to take a hint, no matter how heavily dispiriting. Neutrals the world over will have revelled in the fact that he finally made it at the 13th attempt, lucky for some not that Muldoon would have thought so when he and Connacht stumbled into a double whammy fifteen minutes from time.
Welsh referee Ben Whitehouse binned the skipper for obstruction deemed serious enough to justify awarding Munster a penalty try. The seven-pointer slashed Connacht's lead to one and increased Muldoon's discomfort as he squirmed in a large yellow armchair.
Connacht always knew a time of reckoning would come, when their leadership of the Guinness PRO12 would be subjected to the acid test in trying circumstances. They could never have imagined it would turn out to be as trying as this, and all the more so given that Munster sensed they had been reprieved.
In showing what they were made of, most strikingly during their captain's enforced absence, Connacht demonstrated how far they have come since Pat Lam made the long haul from Auckland to the western outpost of Europe.
Under the Kiwi whom Munster fans will remember as a thorn in their side when Northampton upset the odds during the 2000 European Cup final at Twickenham, Connacht have long passed the stage of settling for their lot as gallant losers.
They won at Thomond Park not by hanging on behind the barricades but in some style with the last try, one which took some engineering by the excellent Robbie Henshaw never mind the acrobatics of Bundee Aki.
His defiance of gravity and one-handed touchdown in a margin for error measured by millimetres brought the best match of the weekend to a wondrous climax. It also treated the crowd to something which will forever be remembered as the Bundee Jump.
Henshaw made it possible and in doing so maintained a family tradition of beating Munster, even if it's taken quite a while. His uncle, Davy Henshaw, was in the front row alongside Fitzgerald almost 30 years ago.
Two other Connacht newcomers must have finished up wondering what all the fuss had been about. James Connolly, a famous name if ever there was one, beat Munster in Limerick not only at his first attempt but on his Guinness PRO12 debut as did the American Eagles' fly half AJ MacGinty, on his first start.
Connacht are nothing if not pragmatic, hence Muldoon's post-match verdict that his native province are showing the rest the way 'because a lot of teams have been missing their international players at the Rugby World Cup. We were the team least affected.'
Every Connacht win dilutes the World Cup influence and challenges the capacity of a squad restricted last weekend by virtually a whole team of injured absentees. Henshaw's damaged hand means the leaders will have to negotiate the next few weeks without him, starting with Friday night's fixture against the Blues at the BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park.
In aiming for a tenth straight win, Muldoon will need no reminding of what happened at the same venue last season, how a converted try in stoppage time cost Connacht the match, 18-17. Worse still, it set them off on a losing run which ultimately cost them a place in the Champions' Cup.
As the Guinness Pro12 approaches the halfway stage, it does so fortified by a depth of competition from top to bottom reflected in last week's results. The Warriors had to wait until the last ten minutes for their only try against Benetton Treviso, Adam Ashe's touchdown enough to deny the Italians a famous draw at Scotstoun.
The Blues led the Ospreys for more than half their match at the Liberty Stadium before an Alun-Wyn Jones converted try wiped out the deficit provided by first half penalties from 19-year-old fly half, Jarrod Evans.
Ulster, restricted by Leinster to a losing a point at the RDS, are back in Belfast on Friday night, up against the team immediately above them in the table, Edinburgh. The Scots made the most of the Dragons' yellow cards, all four of them, to claim the only five-point win of Round Eight.
The Scarlets, two points behind Connacht after surviving Zebre's second half revival led by Dries van Schalkwyk during Sunday's storm, face Benetton Treviso in Italy, the first of two matches on Saturday. The other takes Leinster to Scotstoun in pursuit of a double over the champions, having beaten them in Dublin six weeks back.
Sunday sees Munster at Newport and the Ospreys in Parma, a match that offers Zebre the chance of a fourth straight home win. They followed wins over Edinburgh (19-11) and the Blues (26-15) on successive Saturdays in late October with another in the European Challenge Cup last month against Worcester (27-8).
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