Lethargic Connacht have little to shout about despite win

Date Published: 16-Dec-2008

AFTER 80 minutes of the most uninspiring rugby Galway is likely to witness this season, Connacht came away with the bare minimum requirement at a sodden Sportsground on Friday night. This was a bonus point win against a pathetic Italian outfit borne from the tenacious work in the front five and one or two cameo performances elsewhere.

In terms of entertainment, this was of the muck variety, scrappy and disjointed from the first minute with aimless running and kick after kick after kick. Connacht were infinitely the better side, but their lethargic back play meant that this wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard, even allowing for the conditions.

Michael Bradley was relatively pleased afterwards arguing that “it wasn’t a bad game overall” before adding “if you were a Connacht fan you had plenty of try opportunities to enjoy, we had eight try scoring chances and I think there was plenty of excitement.”

You’d like to think that the above is merely the usual post match positive spin from the head honcho and upon reflection he and his entire squad will realise that despite the bonus point the performance lacked cohesion, poise and skill. They allowed themselves to be dragged down to Rovigo’s level and will need to work overtime in the coming days and weeks to get things in some sort of order for the visit of the Heineken Cup champions.

Rovigo made eight changes for this game, they threw out a largely second string pack for the contest having been knocked out of contention the previous week. They are a distinctly average Italian side at the best of times, but their reserve team wouldn’t match up to a good AIB League side, heck the Connacht juniors might rattle them….