Connacht come so close to flooring high-flying Leinster

Leinster 21

Connacht 18

IT has been said that the best mountain climbers rely on their feet, their guts and their brains when attempting to scale peaks at high altitudes. Connacht were on the verge of conquering a behemoth that has stumped them for 15 years on Monday, but a rare win in Dublin once again eluded them as heart and soul took over and for just a brief few minutes, brains a backseat.

The 28 phases at the very end of the New Year’s Day tussle at a windy and dry RDS in the heart of Dublin will live long in the memory of Connacht folk. It was a quite literal example of a lack of lateral thinking, the team as a whole failed to grasp the need for some clear and calm thinking in the midst of a glorious opportunity, needing just an unconverted try to snatch what would have been a glorious win at the death.

This was a belter of a contest, a rugby game to saviour and yet another example of how this Connacht team have turned a corner in terms of performance levels. Kieran Keane’s men have reacted to their flat display away to Zebre early last month with a run of four high octane, full throttle displays that has yielded 18 tries and restored faith both within and outside the squad.

There are numerous positives to be gleaned from this then but only after acknowledging that Connacht blew the chance for a famous win here at the death as Leinster’s mix of world class talent and truly exceptional emerging stars clung on for a fine win. They built a lead in the first 35 minutes of 11-3 against a strong wind and despite a superb late turnaround in that first half, Connacht were always on the back foot after new New Zealand signing James Lowe mesmerised the crowd with his class before Max Deegan scored in the corner.

The stats showed Connacht dominating territory and possession in the opening half hour but all the line breaks and offloads were coming from Leinster. They had 12 of the game’s 26 clean breaks in that period and also had eight offloads before Connacht had a single one. To put that in context, by the end of the game, Connacht led that stat 11-10. It was all about Johnny Sexton and Lowe and their crafty touches combined with some explosive breaks from the likes of Luke McGrath and Noel Reid.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.