Connacht left with nothing but bruises from hard-fought tie

Connacht 6Leinster 18

Rob Murphy at the Sportsground

That’s two games now without a point. Two bone crunching tireless performances against a star studded Cardiff Blues in Wales and an unusually battle-ready Leinster at the Sportsground and nothing to show for their efforts.

Dominic Ryan’s injury time intercept try took an invaluable losing bonus point from Connacht and left Eric Elwood bemoaning the lack of composure in those closing stages when a win still seemed possible but a point would have been credible. To get nothing is deeply disappointing.

And yet we shouldn’t be too surprised. The back-to-back wins over Leinster in Galway in recent seasons were perhaps under-appreciated a little in one way, they were outstanding results for the simple reason that Leinster are a top five side in Europe and on their day, shouldn’t lose to Connacht.

Saturday was their day, well, to be more precise it was their forwards’ day. That’s not to suggest for one second that the Connacht eight didn’t perform – they gave it bucket loads in fact – but it is to say that both packs performed at their best and Leinster had a slight edge. They focused on key areas, their lineout, which was near perfect in terms of accuracy as well as hugely difficult to read. Each call was varied with a succession of creative and threatening moves. A well-oiled machine grounded in accurate throwing from man of the match Richardt Strauss.

Connacht were struggling for possession as the lineouts were not there to be disrupted and the scrums were a lottery, a successions of free kicks and penalties from George Clancy underlined the continuing trouble with the set piece in world rugby at the moment.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.