Connacht Rugby is on a roll

It was a scrappy game, riddled with errors from both sides and disrupted by overly fussy refereeing, but that won’t bother Connacht as they head in to this Friday’s clash with Leinster in the Sportsground full of confidence.

Perhaps Edinburgh’s huge win away to Munster at Thomond Park in round one had lulled them into a false sense of security in this one, but they shouldn’t have allowed that as Connacht usually match up well with them. The home side started better on the scoreboard with-out half Tom Heathcote kicking two penalties with fine precision. Darragh Leader meanwhile missed two long range efforts for Connacht in that period.

After a spell of Edinburgh dominance came to nothing, thanks to stern defence, Connacht finally had their first sustained period of pressure and from a collapsed scrum in the home 22, they earned a close in penalty which Leader converted to make it 6-3 midway through the first half.

The set piece superiority helped them draw level on 36 minutes with another Leader penalty but, at that point, the visitors would have been regretting a serious of promising attacks that had failed to yield a try . . . yet, level heading towards half time wasn’t a bad place to be, so what transpired in the final seconds seemed like a huge setback when Cornell Du Preeze to score the game’s opening try which Heathcote converted from the touchline for a 13-6 half time lead.

Connacht narrowed the gap on 55 minutes through the boot of Leader, and Willie Faloon crossed for the game-clinching try five minutes from time and while Jack Carty’s conversion tailed just wide, Connacht produced 10 strong phases of unyielding defence and after a turnover at a scrum on the 22, they played out the last two minutes precisely executing five phases of safe play before kicking to touch to seal a second win.