Connacht blown off course by Edinburgh

Connacht 13 Edinburgh 16

Connacht went to the well once more but on another sodden night in the west, the well had run dry. Not until they were battling near impossible odds, carrying and recycling into the second-half gale with 14 men first and then only 13, did Connacht rediscover the intensity they showed against Munster.

However, the damage had already been done when a relatively functional Edinburgh manufactured a 7-0 lead into the elements in the first quarter. Thereafter, they didn’t have to do too much else to win this dogfight, and Connacht’s first home defeat of the season has made what looks like a three-way fight for the last automatic Champions Cup qualifying place into a dogfight as well.

Connacht carriers took the ball too statically too often. Where against Munster they muscled their way in one-on-ones over the gain-line, here they were too often stopped high and in their tracks, which made their ruck ball very slow.

Inconsistent

Nothing about this was easy – neither for protagonists nor spectators – but, as is usually the case, Leighton Hodges didn’t help. He was inconsistent at the breakdown in deeming whether a tackler had rolled away or not, or whether a player had gone off his feet. The penalty count was 15-10 to the visitors. As for the scrums, although neither was dominant, Hodges regularly found disfavour with the Connacht front-row, to significant cost.

On a night when you wouldn’t have put the cat out, the rain swirled in off the Atlantic. The attendance was nothing like it had been on New Year’s Day, although 5,267 was a decent turn-out. Edinburgh won the toss and elected to play into the strong, diagonal wind. The Clan Terrace tried to get the odd chant going, but even they seemed a little flattened. Connacht struggled at the lineout and momentum proved elusive, whereas Edinburgh’s lineout gave them the platform for a couple of drives.

Although both were well defended, the same wasn’t true when the ball was subsequently worked to Dougie Fife, coming off his wing, who sauntered through a gap outside Willie Falloon. Connacht were always on the back foot from that moment, and when Hamish Watson was held up from a quick tap, David Denton scored off the recycle for Sam Hidalgo-Clyne to convert.

It gave Connacht a huge hill to climb and meant that Edinburgh didn’t have to do too much with the ball for the remainder of the half. Miah Nikora, having hit the bar with one wind-assisted penalty, didn’t hold back when opening Connacht’s account with another, before home team and crowd alike were roused when Robbie Henshaw read an Edinburgh play – in fact everybody could see the young Connacht tyro lining up Phil Burleigh, except Burleigh and Greig Tonks, who telegraphed the pass to him.

His mate Bundee Aki, again Connacht’s best carrier, weighed in to drive Burleigh back behind the gain-line and from an ensuing penalty Fife couldn’t prevent Nikora finding the corner. Although a strong lineout drive was held up, as were John Muldoon and Rodney Ah You, Ben Toolis was binned for killing ruck ball.

Muldoon opted for a scrum, and a concerted shove led to a penalty try, which Nikora converted before tagging on another penalty with the last kick of the half after a good steal in contact by Denis Buckley.

Trimmed by half

The 13-7 scoreline was soon trimmed by half when Hodges deemed Buckley to have gone off his feet and Hidalgo-Clyne landed the penalty, as he did to draw the sides level for a scrum penalty against Ah You.

Edinburgh worked one clever blindside scrum move. Hidalgo-Clyne grubbered through but in attempting to slide over the line and gather in one movement, Fife knocked on with the try abegging. Hidalgo-Clyne then missed another penalty.

Pat Lam changed his 8-9-10 axis, and emptied the rest of his bench soon after. It was brave, but also testimony as to how Connacht needed energy.

But more tellingly, as if they hadn’t enough stacked against them, the penalties were coming down as heavily as the rain, and Hodges binned Finlay Bealham when trapped at the bottom of ruck, despite it also being on half-way. Hidalgo-Clyne also pushed Edinburgh in front with the penalty.

Connacht injected some intensity into their carrying, but went down to 13 men when even the Aki could scarcely hobble on. They even had one last go from their own line. Through umpteen phases, they nearly made it to half-way, and deserved a bonus point, but it didn’t feel like much of a consolation.