Disallowed try leads to another Connacht defeat

Connacht 19

THEY thought they had won it. An ice cool Jack Carty had just stood over a kick on the ten metre line and drilled it between the posts, confidently turning away long before it had even reached it’s target, subtly pumping the air with a clinched fist. It should have been the crowning moment in a fantastic performance from the entire Connacht team. It wasn’t.

Connacht had 120 seconds to see out a dramatic victory and they failed to do so. One rush of blood to the head from Ronan Loughney was ultimately to blame. His over exuberant clearout of a ruck was needless and hugely costly as after he was sent to the sin bin, Steve Shingler stepped up and drove what proved to be the winning kick through the posts.

It wasn’t simply down to one man, however. The decision from Connacht to try to play out those final two minutes from inside the their own 22 was hard to defend afterwards also. A long kick down the field would have made sense in the wet end of game conditions. Trusting their defence in an end of game scenario.

Pat Lam was a picture of calm after the game, diplomatically sidestepping the questions about one inexplicably abysmal decision from Welsh TMO Paul Adams to disallow a perfectly legitimate try from Eoghan Masterson and choosing instead to focus on the positives and the progress his side were making.

Underneath it all, however, he must have been raging. His side led 10-0 on the half hour mark. They had 60% possession and 65% territory during the entire contest. Their conversion rate in the 22 was once again below par and there were lots of other niggling aspects, Bundee Aki’s daft first half yellow card for starters, poor tackling and alertness for both the second half tries from the hosts too.

This was defeat number five for Connacht in the season, seven wins and five losses means they are now slipping back into mid table, yet four of those defeats have come away from home at venues where points gained might well be viewed as a bonus at the outset of the campaign. A direct comparison with the same 12 fixtures played last year shows Connacht are 16 points better off with ten games left in the Pro12 season.

All is certainly not lost, Connacht have the European distraction for two weeks now starting in Brive on Saturday night (expect lots of changes) and then return to face Scarlets at the end of the month. The losing bonus point here means they have a shot at edging their top six rivals in these two fixtures with a win by eight or more points. On the basis of this game, that’s well within their capabilities.

Full match report in this week's Connacht Tribune.