Grubber kick strategy key to Connacht taking spoils

Edinburgh 26

Connacht 37

By Rob Murphy

EARLY season tussles like we saw on Sunday evening in Murrayfield can be a good indicator of what lies ahead for teams and while mitigating factors such as international call ups can’t be discounted, this bonus point win against a key PRO14 play off rival was an encouraging signal that Connacht are set for another play-off push this season. More importantly, it was a major improvement on their previous outing in Cardiff.

Despite the fact that they were missing seven players to Andy Farrell’s Ireland, Connacht arrived in Scotland with the kind of well crafted game plan that previous Ireland incumbent Joe Schmidt was famed for in the past. They had done the homework on their opponents, spotting a weakness in Edinburgh’s rush defence and exploiting it with well placed kicks in behind to score three of their five tries.

Edinburgh have been a force under Richard Cockerell in the past couple of years but they have hit a bump in the road of late. They came into this game on a bad run of five defeats in a row and with twice as many players on international duty as their opponents had to deal with. Yet based on historic trends in such fixtures, they were still favourites to emerge victorious in the encounter thanks in large part to their strong South African influenced front row.

It didn’t go to plan, however, as after a breathtaking first half of non-stop action, the hosts found themselves in real trouble with Andy Friend’s men building up a 16-point lead at one juncture before watching that dwindle to just four early in the second half. At that moment, the game was in the balance but it was here that Connacht’s new found self belief in such scenarios came to the fore, with two quick tries sealing the victory.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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