Bedraggled Connacht have no answers in a mis-match

Leinster 54

Connacht 7

WELL this was predictable. It was always going to be this way. A run of games like never before, 13 straight weeks without a break. Three Christmas inter-provincials sandwiched in between four Champions Cup ties and not a single week of rest. To nobody’s surprise, last Saturday evening trip to Dublin turned out to be the point of least resistance as Europe’s most consistent rugby team lay waste to a desolate and bedraggled Connacht.

It’s hard to imagine how it could have gone much worse in the first half. Connacht couldn’t do anything right. They asked nothing of Leinster with the hosts having to just make 49 tackles, missing only one. Connacht had to attempt close to 300 and did well to make over 80% of them. In between, they were sliced and diced during a blitz that saw the hosts score six tries for a 40-0 lead.

It was humiliation territory from the 19th minute when Joe Tomane burst through the cover for the bonus point try before the first quarter had been completed. Max Deegan had notched the early score, Dave Kearney had sprinted home on the wing as an overstretched Connacht defence was found wanting and Ciaran Frawley had scored a wonderful try combining with Deegan before the Australian centre had got try number four.

Connacht have had the odd bad day against Leinster but this was right up there. It was a record defeat in terms of margin of victory and it was the record score in this fixture; outdoing Connacht’s famous victory over Leinster at the Sportsground in John Muldoon’s final game back in 2018. They still talk about that one in the stands and probably in some corners of the dressing room as well. Leinster haven’t lost in this fixture since that day.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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