Harsh lesson for Connacht as mistakes are punished

Connacht 10Toulouse 36

Rob Murphy at the Sportsground

THE occasion, the crowd and the pageantry all lived up to expectations at the Sportsground on Saturday evening and this has been well documented. Connacht finally took their place at the top table of club rugby and Galway and the Connacht Branch did themselves proud.

The game itself, however, proved to be a harsh lesson in ruthlessly punished mistakes. Toulouse came with a smothering counter attacking game plan and executed it perfectly, but Connacht were far too accommodating in the opening-half and while their second half battling effort meant pride remained intact, those early errors proved key to this defeat.

Let’s look for the devil in the detail and focus in on the first quarter of this contest because that’s the only story that matters. Having lost the opening kick off, Connacht were on the back foot early. Two brilliant touch finders from Connacht’s stand out performer, Gavin Duffy, offered hope and lifted the crowd but they were cameos.

The first penalty came on five minutes from Lionel Beauxis. The position had been garnered by a scintillating break from Luke Burgess, a kick and a handling error from Brian Tuohy under pressure.

Connacht responded well. Adrian Flavin hit his man in the lineout, George Naoupu, Rodney Ah You, Paul O'Donoghue and Mike McCarthy all made yards in their own distinctive styles, but Miah Nikora chose to grubber kick on phase five and Toulouse burst out of their own 22 with a simple inside pass catching the scramble defence on the hop. In fact, but for a marginal forward pass, they would have scored.

That was ominous sign number one and the lesson seemed simple, give the ball away cheaply in the attacking 22 and get ready to defend deep in your own half within seconds. Yet Connacht didn't heed the warning signs in a tentative and mistake ridden first-half. As good as Toulouse were in that first 40, Connacht stood back in awe and suffered.

A Dave McSharry knock on in an attacking position led to another hugely significant territorial shift with the visitors taking all of 30 seconds to get down field and force a scrum 20 metres out. A drop goal from Beauxis followed and he kicked a second penalty within two minutes after a Yannick Jauzion break had set them on another sweeping attack from the restart.

Restart number five of the game was won deep by the visitors this time and Beauxis proceeded to put in a outrageously good clearance kick that bounced into touch six metres from the Connacht 22. The crowd were sensing the worst at this point.

For a brief moment, however, the momentum turned, Paul O’Donoghue launched a speculative garryowen, the confident Tiernan O’Halloran rose high and fielded spectacularly. Connacht won the penalty. Momentum perhaps? Not really.

The lineout was won but the short side move again involved a little grubber kick, this time from O’Donoghue. A poor poor play call from a strong lineout position that ended with a throw to the visitors as the blocked kick rebounded off the home number nine into touch.

That was that then. Toulouse were down field attacking within a minute and although Connacht won a scrum thanks to Nikora and John Muldoon holding up Clement Poitrenaud in the tackle, the game’s first try came from that very set piece on 20 minutes.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.