Honour intact as Connacht worry Northampton

Date Published: 14-Apr-2009

We might well have caught a brief glimpse of the future at Franklin’s Gardens last Saturday. For sixty minutes Connacht competed and outmanoeuvred their highly rated opponents in a hair-raising display. There was a cruel sting in the tail for sure and Northampton’s extra class told in the end, but questionable refereeing and key injuries also played a part in this defeat.

With a little over ten minutes remaining in the contest, Connacht were breaking tackles deep in Northampton territory and rampaging towards theline. They trailed by just five points and, through Ray Ofisa, they had scored the game’s only try. Not everything was going their way, Johnny O’Connor was in the bin at that point, but they were in the hunt.

What followed was a brutally unforgiving exhibition from the home side sparked by a moment of class in their backline from James Downey, Stephen Myler and Paul Diggin. The interchange unlocked a seemingly watertight Connacht defence and forced Gavin Duffy into a last ditch tackle, where he played the ball on the ground in desperation.

French referee Roman Poite had left Connacht supporters totally perplexed by his decisions all afternoon, but the Duffy decision was indisputable and as Connacht’s brightest spark on the day walked to the sideline, the Saints maul from the resultant scrum trundled towards the line, on the second wave Neil Best got over for his side’s opening try on 70 minutes.

Connacht still managed a rampaging half break from Troy Nathan soon after but the counter attack from the home side led indirectly to Joe Ansbro’s try and in the closing stages Bruce Reihana and Chris Mayor also got over. It…