Ospreys 29
Connacht 7
CONNACHT’S INJURY PROBLEMS got worse as Jack Carty and Jake Heenan were forced off in the first-half of their 29 – 7 loss to the Ospreys.
Carty limped off after 30 minutes with his team 14-0 down and, in his absence, Connacht were brushed aside as the home team sealed a bonus-point win.
The defending Pro12 champions had a nightmare start as the Ospreys scored two early tries.
Dan Baker crossed for the first following a scintillating break from Olly Cracknell. The impressive flanker then added his side’s second and with Sam Davies converting both scores, Pat Lam’s men were quickly 14-0 down.
Eoin McKeon replaced Heenan for his 100th Connacht appearance and scrum-half Caolin Blade stepped in for Carty as their team’s deficit remained at just two converted tries at the interval.
Steve Tandy’s Ospreys had looked the more dangerous of the two sides throughout the first half, and Davies kicked a penalty at the start of the second to extend their lead.
Then just before the hour mark, Nicky Smith added the home team’s third try, benefitting from more good work from the excellent Justin Tipuric.
Without Carty to guide their ship, Connacht were rudderless in attack but they did show admirable resilience with things going against them.
Sean O’Brien finally got Lam’s men on the scoreboard with their only try of the day. John Cooney nailed the touchline conversion but the Ospreys had the last laugh, Ashley Beck sealing a bonus-point win with the last play of the game.
Scorers
Ospreys
Tries – Baker 12, Cracknell 14, Smith 57, Beck 79
Cons – Davies 13, 15, 58;
Pens – Davies 45
Connacht
Tries – O’Brien 76
Con – Cooney 76
Ospreys: Evans; Howells (Biggar 72), Beck, Matavesi (Fonatia 66), Dirksen; Davies, Habberfield (Leonard 65); Smith (Thomas 65) Parry (Otten 66), Fia (Jones 57), Ashley (Beard 73), Jones (capt), Cracknell (Underhill 65), Tipuric, Baker.
Connacht: O’Halloran; Adeolokun, Parata, Robb (Poolman 41), Healy (Gaffney 78); Carty (Blade 31), Cooney; Buckley (Cooney 66), McCartney (Heffernan 55), Bealham (Andress 66), Roux (Stevenson 66), Cannon, O’Brien, Heenan (McKeon 12), Dawai
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I’ve never been more worried about facing Zebre at home. Please Christ can some of the injured players come back into the fold for next week.
We were struggling against when the game got called off thankfully
Ronaldson is supposed to be back mid January… Zebre would be the perfect oppenents to have him back playing against
And there wasn’t an injury crisis then
We cant catch a break this season.
The lineout continues to be a problem…Two of Ospreys tries came from Connacht losing their own lineout
Personally I believe the loss of Andre Bell has being hugely significant, our back line has not fired all year. And let’s be honest that was not poor team we had our today we had similar strength teams last year and were winning games. We are ravaged by injuries but I think there is a deeper problem whether it’s the coaches that have left , the fact that Pat is leaving or second season syndrome the fact is we haven’t played well at all this season. We need to kick on and drive the standards to where they were last season to finish the season on a positive and give us optimism for going into next season! Connacht Abu!
Connacht were awful. The winter conditions don’t suit their running and passing game.
Heenan picks up so many injuries it’s unreal .