Ospreys 26 Connacht 21:A TRY either side of the interval from Gavin Duffy was not enough as Connacht fell to an agonising defeat in Swansea. Connacht trailed 17-10 at half-time, with Barry Davies and Hanno Dirksen touching down for the hosts.

Duffy handed his side a glimmer of hope with his second try after an hour but it was not enough as the boot of Dan Biggar maintained the Welsh region’s 100 per cent start to the season.

But Niall O’Connor did slot a last-minute penalty to secure a crucial losing bonus-point.

The Welsh region took the lead inside five minutes with a fine try. Tom Isaacs went outside Eoin Griffin and offloaded to Barry Davies. Biggar added the extras from the touchline.

Connacht levelled on 24 minutes after the ball was spread wide for Duffy to dive over from close-range, with O’Connor expertly converting.

The Ospreys hit back with a Biggar penalty and then captain Dirksen raced clear after the ball bounced off flanker Justin Tipuric’s shoulder into his hands.

Two more Biggar penalties put the Welsh side in control. The Welsh side did lose Ian Gough to the sinbin on 43 minutes but Connacht couldn’t make the advantage count, although Duffy did cross for his second try.

CONNACHT: Duffy; Tuohy, Griffin, Fa’afili, O’Halloran; O’Connor, Murphy; Wilkinson, Reynecke, Rogers; Swift, McCarthy; Anderson, J O’Connor, Muldoon. Replacements: Loxton for Griffin, Flavin for Reynecke (both 41 mins), Jarvis for Loxton (60 mins), Loughney for Wilkinson, Maguire for Rogers, Ofisa for Anderson (all 62 mins), O’Donohoe for F Murphy (72 mins).

OSPREYS: B Davies; Fussell, Isaacs, Bishop, Dirkson; Biggar, Webb; D Jones, Hibbard, Jarvis, Gough, Evans, Smith, Tipuric, Thomas. Replacements: Phillips for Dirkson (48 mins), Rees for Jarvis (59 mins), Parker for B Davies , M Davies for Hibbard (both 65 mins), King for Gough (68 mins).

Referee: Stefano Penne (FIR).