So close for Connacht

Leinster 16

Connacht 13

THE bemused gasps echoed throughout the new stand at the RDS when the upstarts from the west had the audacity to shun three points and kick to the corner minutes after half time.

Connacht were leading 13-9 at that point and had just received a kickable penalty in the 22, the home support had sat back in their seats fully expecting a kick and were taken aback.

 That moment of audible bewilderment is a perfect snapshot of how the rest of the country see Connacht rugby and it might be a marker we refer back to later in the year. Pat Lam endlessly talks about “the process” that his side is focused on.

If his squad can focus on the process, the results will follow, he says and after his starting line up and replacements left their boots on the field for a third week in a row, all that rhetoric has a ‘half-full’ sort of feel to it at the moment. 

Connacht lost this game. They came close to winning it, were worthy of the plaudits they got and in no way deserved the nonsensical disrespect sent their way by Australian born Leinster head coach Matt O’Connor in the immediate aftermath of this contest. Yet the final outcome wasn’t an injustice either.

Erratic refereeing aside, ill-discipline cost Connacht. Too many needless offside penalties meant that they just couldn’t point the finger at some of the questionable calls from David Wilkinson that went against them at the breakdown or the non-calls for them early in the second half.

Poor discipline plays a key role in explaining why they lost, yellow cards for Ronan Loughney on 71 minutes (for offside) and Kieran Marmion on 76 minutes (for grabbing Isaac Boss before he had taken the ball from the scrum) cost them dearly.

It was 15 men versus 13 for the final four minutes. Stand in captain Craig Clarke must have felt like General Custer as he packed down with Aly Muldowney in the second row for the five metre scrum which led to the match winning penalty try for Leinster.

The fear beforehand was that there would be a drop off in form from the visitors. In the past, Connacht sides have been stretched too thin, in terms of mental approach, to maintain the European intensity when returning to ‘domestic’ action. 

Moreover, last season, in 240 minutes of rugby away from home against Irish provinces, the westerners hadn’t mustered a single point. The effort wasn’t good enough.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.