Another agonising defeat for Connacht

Date Published: 07-Jan-2011

Connacht’s losing streak continues as they lost out by a point to a Dragons side which they had defeated heavily in the Sportsground in September.

The impact of the five day turnaround from the Leinster game seemed to weigh on Connacht at the start as they conceded an easy seven points to an Aled Brew try after three minutes.

Under similar pressure for the first 20 minutes, Connacht at last made headway with a Keatley penalty.

On 30 minutes Eoin Griffin’s good footwork created space for Troy Nathan to go over for a try, converted by Keatley.

The lead was short-lived as Aled Brew made good ground from inside his own half to let Riley over for a try.

Keatley tacked on another penalty to leave it 14-13 to the Dragons at the break.

The second half was error-strewn with Connacht , in particular, wasting reasonable gains with knock-ons or poor choices when in the Dragons half.

Keatly restored Connacht’s lead with a penalty but this was overtaken by Tovey’s reply 13 minutes later.

With 15 minutes left there were several opportunities for Connacht but the Newport side played the smarter rugby, pinning Connacht back in their own half for long periods.

A full match report will appear in the Sentinel.