Connacht sell themselves short in Euro loss to Sale

Connacht 10

Rob Murphy at the AJ Bell Stadium

A harsh and sobering defeat for Connacht has put the season on the line as they enter the month of April. Andy Friend took a decision here to rotate his squad quite dramatically and both the result and the performance very much reflected that approach as his Connacht side put in one of their most error strewn displays of the season to date.

The sparsely attended AJ Bell Stadium had a good atmosphere permeating around it before kick-off thanks largely to the big contingent of Connacht supporters, but the travelling army were left with very little to cheer over the 80 minutes in a game that lacked intensity and quality. The Westerners were completely overrun in the first 15 minutes and looked well and truly out of the competition by half time, trailing by 17 points.

A late second half flurry offered some solace as Kyle Godwin crashed over for a try with 13 minutes left and Connacht did seem to have some momentum for a brief period but even then, Sale were able to step up the intensity and wrestle back control of the exchanges to ensure the victory didn’t slip from their grasp in those closing stages. They have now set up an away semi final with La Rochelle on the Easter weekend.

Connacht had made seven changes to their pack with just James Cannon involved from the Benetton Treviso game and while Friend insisted afterwards that he felt the group he had started could have won the game, there was no logical argument that would say he had given his side every opportunity to advance either. He had taken a gamble and hoped, at worst, that this group could perform well, but it had backfired in the shape of a sub standard display.

The game was won and lost in the first half. Sale Sharks, who tend to shun the idea of squad rotation, had selected a near full strength side with a clear plan to get ahead early and crush any Connacht aspirations before they could even surface. The opening ten minutes were almost a disaster as the visitors had a golden opportunity to score a try on an intercept and kicked the first points through a penalty, but once that storm was weathered it was one way traffic.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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