Connacht must be getting fed up of hard luck stories

ANOTHER stirring effort; another avoidable defeat. It’s becoming a recurring theme for Connacht this season. Apart from their friendly victory over a second-string Samoa outfit at the Sportsground, Eric Elwood’s squad have drawn a blank on the competitive front since mid-October. It’s a poor run of results by any standards, but particularly so now as the IRFU are finally starting to show an overdue interest in the men out West.

Once more, Connacht had the possession and the territory to have engineered a win over Harlequins in the Amlin Cup at The Stoop on Sunday evening, but again were founding wanting when it came to taking their chances. They are simply not clinical enough and though, once again, John Muldoon and company were heroic in terms of commitment, their ongoing failure to close the deal must be tormenting them by this stage.

Having already suffered a shock loss to Italian part-timers Cavalieri, Connacht needed the minimum of a bonus point from their trip to London to preserve their slim hopes of advancing to the knock-out stages of the competition, but their 20-9 defeat probably spells the end of the road barring an unlikely series of results. You could almost sense Elwood’s frustration in his post match interviews over yet another near miss.

The Connacht coach knows that his team have developed an admirable consistency in terms of performances and intensity, but wrong options, poor decision-making and the failure to execute the killer-pass are all conspiring against them in terms of achieving the progress that the men in green are aspiring to. Either the players are slow-learners or it’s just that they lack the inherent composure and calmness required when try-scoring opportunities present themselves.

Connacht had bravely carried the fight to Harlequins last Sunday evening, but were rocked when they conceded a try created out of nothing in the tenth minute. Their defence was caught napping by a quick Mick Browne throw into the line out and before the visitors knew it, Tom Guest had scampered past a couple of flimsy tackles to strike first blood for the English Premiership side. It was a sickening score to concede and with Nick Evans landing the conversion and an 18th minute penalty, Harlequins were already in the driving seat.

Two Miah Nikora penalties, the second on the stroke of half-time after a quick Frank Murphy ‘tap and go’ had unhinged the Harlequins cover only for Connacht to fail to take advantage of the numbers out wide, left them 13-6 down, but far from out of it. They were again forcing the pace early in the second-half when Murphy tried a similar tactic rather than his team taking a convertible kick at goal. It proved an expensive error; the move broke down and the resulting Harlequins turnover eventually saw Mike Browne going over for the match-clinching score. Instead of probably cutting the deficit to 13-9, Connacht were now 14 points adrift . . . and it was all their own fault.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.