Browned off !

Connacht Rugby has marketed Saturday’s game against Glasgow at the Sportsground (kick-off, 5pm) as a Halloween special, urging fans to come in scary fancy dress costumes to “frighten off the Scots”.

But if the evening’s fare isn’t to turn into a rugby ‘Rocky Horror Show’ for the home team, Connacht simply has to cut out the number of penalties conceded against high-flying Glasgow.

Credit where it’s due, Connacht were immense against Leinster at the RDS in Dublin last weekend, and didn’t deserve to lose in the end by a penalty try even if there was an air of inevitability about it with the scrum creaking and two men in the sin-bin.

Leinster coach Matt O’Connor’s petulant outburst afterwards that the visitors “didn’t play any rugby”, should be taken as a compliment by Connacht. No more the condescending pats on the head, ‘aren’t ye great all the same lads’, Pat Lam’s Connacht obviously did lots right to ruffle the feathers and attract the ire of the under pressure Aussie coach.

Kicking for the corner rather than trying for three points with a penalty immediately after half-time was an audacious move by the westerners; and the heads-up rugby played Connacht’s backs, particularly early on to go 13-3 up, was impressive.

The number of penalties conceded by Connacht was criminal, however. Granted some of the decisions by referee David Wilkinson were questionable but a penalty count of 18 conceded versus eight by Leinster is twice as many as is acceptable. How can you expect to win a game conceding 18 penalties? That must be addressed ahead of the Glasgow match, as Gregor Townsend’s men will thrive on Connacht ill discipline.

The scrum was another area of concern at the weekend – even before prop Ronan Loughney was sin-binned, Leinster was beginning to turn the screw in the scrum.

The return to fitness this week of hooker, Jason Harris Wright and tight-head, Nathan White, gives Lam options that can bolster the pack’s set-pieces.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune