Connacht 11
Ospreys 32
Murray Kinsella reports from the Sportsground
CONNACHT’S PRO12 TITLE defence is off to the worst possible start as they lost at home for the second week running, giving up a bonus point to the Ospreys in the process.
Pat Lam’s men were competitive for much of the game and took an 11-10 lead in the second half after a characteristically brilliant team try finished by Eoin McKeon, but the Ospreys powered clear in the final quarter to leave the westerners empty-handed.
Connacht will now travel to Zebre in next weekend’s round three tie desperate for the win they require to get their league campaign up and running.
Though the performance levels were improved after last weekend’s humbling at the hands of Glasgow Warriors in Galway, the final-quarter concession of three tries to an admittedly excellent Ospreys team will be of concern to Lam.
The western province’s lack of pre-season games would appear to be affecting them even now.
Sam Davies gave the Ospreys an early lead after John Muldoon kicked the ball out of Rhys Webb’s hands, with Connacht out-half Jack Carty missing a chance to level proceedings from the tee shortly after.
The opening 30 minutes were largely a tale of dominant Ospreys possession and territory, as they repeatedly threatened through the likes of left wing Eli Walker and the delightful playmaker Davies.
Though Carty did slot a 20th-minute penalty following a nice break on the left from Matt Healy, the opening half hour concluded with the Ospreys try that had looked certain.
The mobile and intelligent Tyler Ardron picked from the base of a five-metre scrum and fed Webb, who burst through the upright tackle efforts of Carty and Eoin Griffin far too easily. Davies’ conversion sent Steve Tandy’s men 10-3 ahead.
Finally, Connacht got their hands on the ball for an extended period of time in the Ospreys 22 but could not manufacture the required reward.
There was a seemingly obvious collapsed maul by the Ospreys with Connacht threatening from metres out in the the 35th minute, before Carty grubbered the ball away wastefully under the Ospreys posts soon after.
Niyi Adeolokun broke three tackles with a dynamic burst in the closing two minutes of the half, but Justin Tipuric and the influential Ospreys back row swarmed for a choke tackle turnover three phases later to frustrate Connacht.
That frustration was channeled well early in the second half as Connacht began to grasp some control of the tie, leading to three points for Carty from the tee after Davies was adjudged to have tackled him high.
The Connacht out-half missed touch with a penalty soon after, but swiftly made a big linebreak to highlight his down-and-up evening in the 10 shirt.
The Ospreys’ tackling was focused on the upper body all evening and the risk was underlined in the 52nd minute when Ardron saw yellow for his high shot on Finlay Bealham.
Though Connacht couldn’t turn a fresh occupancy on the Ospreys’ five-metre line into a try directly after that, they did finally strike with the delicious team try finished by McKeon.
It began with a lineout 40 metres out, the westerners bouncing back down the shortside cleverly, allowing Kieran Marmion to snipe directly over the top of the subsequent breakdown.
Tiernan O’Halloran made important metres wide on the right as Connacht marched forward, before Danny Qualter and James Connolly handled expertly from right to left, freeing Bundee Aki to feed McKeon in space against the 14-man Ospreys.
Carty’s conversion was wide, leaving Connacht just a single point to the good, and Davies sent the Ospreys back in front with a straightforward shot at goal after his refreshed front row won a scrum penalty.
That meant a scoreline of 13-11 Ospreys heading into the final quarter, but with Ardron back on the pitch Connacht could not build on the excellent McKeon try.
Instead, it was the Ospreys who created a period of controlled, sustained pressure. Webb directed a lengthy passage of narrow, direct attack in the Connacht 22 that ended with Ardron making up for his 10 minutes in the bin by stretching out to score.
Davies couldn’t convert, but did add the two points to the Ospreys’ third try, scored with six minutes left on the clock.
A loose pass by replacement Shane O’Leary was picked up by Ben John, the Ospreys centre striding 60 metres downfield before being hauled down by Healy. But Webb was on hand in support to finish.
Connacht’s collapse continued as fullback Dan Fish broke their line all to easily near the halfway, allowing him to feed right wing Jeff Hassler for the bonus-point try. Davies put the icing on the cake from the tee.
Connacht scorers:
Tries: Eoin McKeon
Conversions: Jack Carty [o from 1]
Penalties: Jack Carty [2 from 3]
Ospreys scorers:
Tries: Rhys Webb [2], Tyler Ardron, Jeff Hassler
Conversions: Sam Davies [3 from 4]
Penalties: Sam Davies [2 from 2]
CONNACHT: Tiernan O’Halloran; Niyi Adeolokun (Danie Poolman ’66 (Dave Heffernan ’73)), Eoin Griffin, Bundee Aki, Matt Healy; Jack Carty (Shane O’Leary ’66), Kieran Marmion (Caolin Blade ’68); Ronan Loughney (JP Cooney ’60), Tom McCartney, Finlay Bealham (Dominic Robertson-McCoy ’75); Ultan Dillane, Danny Qualter (Lewis Stevenson ’68); Eoin McKeon, James Connolly (Rory Moloney ’75), John Muldoon (captain).
OSPREYS: Dan Evans ( Jon Spratt ’78); Jeff Hassler, Ben John, Josh Matavesi, Eli Walker (Tom Habberfield ’73); Sam Davies, Rhys Webb (captain); Nicky Smith (Paul James ’56), Sam Parry (Scott Baldwin ’66), Dmitri Arhip (Ma’afu Fia ’56); Bradley Davies (Lloyd Ashley ’54), Rory Thornton (Lloyd Ashley ’44 to ’54) (Dan Baker ’73); Olly Cracknell (James King ’60), Justin Tipuric, Tyler Ardron (yellow card ’52 to ’62).
Referee: Ben Whitehouse [WRU].
Attendance: 5,749.
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Watched the game. I have to say, I sometimes questioned some of the refereee’s decisions during the game (such as multiple high tackles before a yellow card was given).
But I beg to ask what is going on with Connacht. They lost just 2 players form the championship winning team last season, but they’ve lost control of their own basics and skills that made them so successful.
A complete lack of a pre season was a factor, the last 5 minutes sum this up.
Yeah, pre-season couldn’t have gone much worse for them
Maybe a bit of credit to Glasgow and the Ospreys
They both played extremely well
Always felt last seasons pro12 was seriously skewed by the world cup. Teams like ospreys & glasgow really werent at their best. Whereas connacht & scarlets made hay, both are 0-2 so far now. Hope its not a sign of things to come. Although to be fair its been a tough start to the season.
I would expect both to get top 4 with Leinster and Ulster the favourites to be there with them. Improved performance this week from the team but a bad pre-season, injuries and teams becoming more aware in how to play us has been the main factors in our poor start. The defence has been really poor in both games conceding tries from our own half which we weren’t doing for the majority of last season. The half back pairing in both games have been very poor, Marmion seems to have regressed from where he was about 2 seasons ago and Carty’s kicking is a liability at this stage nowhere near good enough for this level, Boshoff cant come soon enough and I would probably go with SO’L in the mean time. It’s still early and we played two excellent teams so I wouldn’t be pushing any panic buttons yet and with Zebre up next we should stop the rot with a win next week.
Makes you worry about Aki’s decision in the summer.
What decision was that?
To head home or speculate about his future or something I missed?
What decision? He was always under contract. No decision to make until next year.
I don’t think the losses of McGinty and Muldowney can be understated. Henshaw is obviously a big loss too (Griffin has been poor so far) but those two were central to launching our attacks last year and were massive defensively. The lack of a proper preseason and the injury list doesn’t help either. Most of the lads looked goosed after an hour tonight.
What gives with that bad pre season? I would have thought preparation wpuld have been meticulous under Pat?
Two of the teams they were supposed to play pulled out.
Not uncommon for surprise champions to have an indifferent start to the season now that they’re the ones to beat. It’s only round 2 of 22 though so it’s a bit early to hold crisis talks but Connacht need to pick it up for the next game.
Connacht need to up their game fast ahead of the ERC
When Connacht were winning last year we barely got a mention in the journal…. Leinster got off to bad start too last year,,,,,, it’ll be grand, they’ll regroup and turn it around…. To early to be in a panic
Poor support from fans again tonight though!
How was it poor support most fans stayed until the end and clapped the players off tonight and 5.7k is a decent crowd for the start of the season.
Fitness is the key issue here, those last 2 tries sum this up, taking the ball in there own half and essentially running over for a try. Zebre couldn’t have come at a better time.
At this stage the top 6 looks far superior to the bottom 6.
They’re really missing henshaw
Muldowney and mcginty not hensaw
@bmul, Dont be silly Henshaw was one of Connachts best players last season. Of course he will be missed!
Henshaw missed most of the Pro 12 games last season. Actually think Muldowney a much bigger loss.
Maybe you should check how many games hensaw played
Such a lengthy match report without mentioning the final score. Did your reporter leave early to file his copy?
Lack of decent preseason training games have hurt them badly but let’s not lose the run of ourselves here. They had a terrible game but showed glimpses of last seasons quality in the first match and made massive improvements to this match. Next week I’ll put money on them winning or at least it being a very tight scoreline and I don’t even know who they’re playing right now. It’s game 2. They didn’t go unbeaten last season either and won it. No need for alarm bells, and this from a leinster supporter. Cudn’t have been happier with a defeat last season, look forward to some great local derby games this year.
For conspiracy theorists 2 Welsh refs 2 games! For honesty missing MacGinty and Aly abilities to defend and force attack. Skills still there fitness improving. O’Leary should be given a chance now. Muls needs help can’t lead the team on his own so far personally I’ve not seen anyone step up to the plate to do so . If there’s leaders there they need to show themselves now before we actually do have a crisis.