Connacht pass-up glorious chance to record rare win in Murrayfield

Date Published: {J}

Edinburgh 19

Connacht 14

Rob Murphy

A horrible game of rugby. No other way of describing it. Ruined by a referee whose indifference to the concept of a sporting event that flows was clear from the outset but ruined also by a home side that lacked poise and coherence and a visiting side that seemed to freeze for the first hour and took an age to realise they could win.

Connacht are on a steep learning curve this season, results like this will slip away. Edinburgh were immensely beatable – outside of the starters, they had no available outside backs left in their squad (two out-halves and a scrum-half on the bench) and just two internationals in their starting line up. Connacht had five. A rare imbalance indeed.

Michael Bradley has his work cut out in the Scottish capital this season. Even at full strength they haven’t been much of a force in recent seasons and when stretched like this, the resources are hardly awe-inspiring. Edinburgh’s sole try came from a Connacht error, their other promising attacks ended in sloppy mistakes.

Yet all that shouldn’t suggest that Connacht were hard done by: rather, they were the makers of their own downfall, the 10-3 half-time penalty count against them was bemusing, but in as much as that reflected on the incompetence of Alan Falzone, it also reflected on Connacht’s inability to adapt.

Gavin Duffy’s yellow card was avoidable and a key mistake. It cost Connacht a mere three points but more than that, it meant that it delayed their late resurgence by 10 minutes. Once their captain was back on the field, five minutes into the second half, the Westerners clicked up a gear and slowly but surely the game garnered some sort of a shape.

The first half deserves just one paragraph but we’ll give it two for its significance in a ‘bigger picture’ sense. There were 13 penalties, numerous stoppages and a 6-3 scoreline in favour of the home side thanks to Greig Laidlaw’s two kicks from three attempts.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.