Frustration for fans as Connacht’s losing run continues

Fittingly, a melancholic version of Frank Sinatra’s That’s Life blared from the Sportsground speakers as Connacht Rugby fans streamed out of the stadium after Saturday evening’s 19-12 RaboDirect PRO12 defeat to high-flying Glasgow Warriors.

There was a familiar mixture of emotions among the home support in the large crowd of 4,185 but the overriding one was frustration. This was a game Connacht could have won; it was one they could have lost by more. But the frustration was mostly because the scores conceded by the home team were eminently avoidable.

Winger DTH van der Merwe should really have been held up on the line for the game’s only try. More annoying, however, was the phases of play that led up to it shouldn’t have happened in the first place because Connacht had an opportunity to clear their lines from their own put-in from a scrum in the ‘22. They failed to do so and were 7-0 down after as many minutes.

On at least two other occasions, including after Connacht had scored, they botched the re-start with knock-ons and handed the initiative back to the visitors, allowing them to cancel out any initial inroad gains by the Westerners.

Connacht also failed to nail a few of their own scoring chances – both out-halves, Dan Parks and his second-half replacement Craig Ronaldson were guilty of skewing chances for three points although, in fairness, none were straightforward in the conditions.

There are positives, though. The first is obviously securing a losing bonus point. And apart from the initial ten minutes when the scrum was a bit of a mess leading to the try, Connacht’s set-pieces were solid enough. They had the measure of the Glasgow scrum and plundered a couple of their line-outs.

Connacht also used the maul as an effective attacking weapon. The penalty count was much improved from the Leinster match; Glasgow conceded nine, Connacht conceded eight but half of them were in the final ten minutes including when Mata Fifita was in the sin-bin and the legs were tiring.

It’s been a tumultuous start to the Pat Lam era and the break for the November internationals will offer some badly needed respite for an injury ravaged Connacht.

Added to the already long casualty list are scrum-half Kieran Marmion, who yesterday (Monday) signed a contract extension that commits him to Connacht until Summer 2016, prop Brett Wilkinson and back-row Jake Heenan who all suffered knocks against Glasgow. Connacht could do with rest and freshening up before the next game against Scarlets at home on Saturday, November 23.