Connacht Rugby surrender unbeaten home record

Connacht Rugby lost their unbeaten home record to Edinburgh last weekend, coming out on the wrong side of a 16-13 scoreline.

A tired looking Connacht Rugby, devoid of the passion and energy that has defined their season to date, far too meekly surrendered their impressive unbeaten home record that had stretched to an eight-match unbeaten run at College Road since September.

At times error prone, Connacht Rugby was so poor in the wind and rain that it was hard to imagine that they had the wherewithal to achieve an eight match undefeated run at the Sportsground. Pat Lam’s charges certainly looked out of sorts.

As feared, the New Year’s hangover was present: the high of that interprovincial success was swiftly followed by a low of succumbing to an Edinburgh outfit, who let’s face it, aren’t that good.

The visitors did enough to limp over the line, and deserved their 16-13 victory, but what is so frustrating from the westerner’s perspective is the Scots are average and eminently beatable.

Connacht led 13-7 at the break but failed to trouble the score board operators in the second half, struggling to get out of their own half and Edinburgh scrum-half Sam Hidalgo Clyne scored three penalties as ill-discipline haunted the home team.

The squad has a nine-day turnaround, plenty of time to rest, regroup, and refocus, as the attention shifts to European action this coming weekend. Pool 2 leaders Exeter Chiefs travel to Galway on Sunday for round five of the European Challenge Cup.

Both sides have three wins and one loss each, and Connacht are just two points behind the Devon side – a home win over the Aviva Premiership club would pave the way for qualification to the quarter-final. The game is live on Sky Sports and tickets for the game remain on sale at the usual outlets.