Connacht fail to spark in poor defeat to Dragons

Dragons 14Connacht 3

THE root of Connacht’s problem with breaking free of the bottom five in the RaboDirect Pro12 can be found on nights like this in Rodney Parade hidden away in November.

These are the points that matter a lot more than big one off home wins and the men in green continue to fall short of the required performance in such encounters.

The Dragons arrived missing a half dozen frontline players to international duty and having lost seven on the bounce. They had also lost here to Connacht in the spring and the visitors had no reason to fear their Newport based opponents.

However, Connacht were carrying their own issues. Mike McCarthy was on international duty making hay against Argentina; Fetu Vainikolo was busy scoring a stunning match winning try for Tonga against Scotland; while George Naoupu and John Muldoon are on the long term injury list.

Eric Elwood’s squad was depleted and coming off a two week break, so when they started with surge on Friday night, the head coach must have been encouraged. Tiernan O’Halloran almost created a try scoring chance only for the pass not to go to hand, but they settled for a Dan Park’s penalty to get the ball rolling.

That was as good as it got for the home side as the second quarter belonged to the Dragons, thanks in the main to a hugely lopsided penalty county that played a part in two Connacht sin bins and paved the way for the game’s only try.

The Dragons drew level when visiting full back Robbie Henshaw was hit with a bone crunching tackle by Will Harries and Jason Harris-White was shown yellow for interfering at the ensuing breakdown.  

Tom Prydie converted a straight forward penalty and things soon got worse for Connacht when blindside Andrew Browne followed Harris Wright to the bin having been picked out by the touch judge for what was an alleged stamp. 

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.