Ospreys punish profligate Connacht

Connacht 6 Ospreys 17:AFTER A promising start to the season, Connacht are struggling to arrest a run of poor results. Saturday's loss to league pacesetters Ospreys was the province's seventh in succession, and coach Eric Elwood knows there's work to do.

“We know what we have to do: Work hard, push ourselves, test ourselves, that’s all we can do,” he said.

After last weekend’s historic fixture against Toulouse in the Heineken Cup, it was back to earth with bump. Some 4,000 supporters returned to a more familiar-looking Sportsground where a strong and swirling wind did not help Connacht’s desire to translate their strong European form into points in the bread and butter competition.

They trailed 10-6 at the break, and despite winning sufficient ball, particularly through the lineout, failed to finish off at least seven chances to cross the Ospreys’ line.

“For us to win games everybody has to be on the money, everybody has to be at their best to beat a team of the Ospreys’ quality, regardless of who they have playing,” added Elwood.

“It’s tough. They have guys like Tommy Bowe who can win a game on his own with a couple of line breaks. We have to be workmanlike, we have to work very hard for anything we get, and unless things go right and we work extremely hard, we are not going to get rewards.”

While Ospreys had seven players on international duty, Connacht were without four front-line players. Missing the grunt of Mike McCarthy and Michael Swift in the second row, Elwood, however, could not fault the effort of David Gannon and George Naoupu who were faultless in the lineout.

“We are the type of team that cannot afford to miss four of five starters – but in fairness the guys who came in did well. There are no easy games in the Rabo, no easy games in Europe, but it’s hard when you get nothing out of it for all that effort.”

Connacht will blame only themselves for their lack of finishing, although they were stymied by an aggressive Ospreys’ cover.

“We had a better second half again, but unfortunately when we got into position in the 22 we lost the ball six or seven times. If you create chances you have to take them. The Ospreys took theirs because there were not many kicking options on a night like that. We have to be more clinical and ruthless at the breakdown.”

Connacht created several try-scoring opportunities – the first as early as the 12th minute when scrumhalf Paul O’Donohoe lost the ball over the line. And they were worthy of their lead when it arrived via a Miah Nikora penalty.

However within three minutes outhalf Matthew Morgan had replied and when he grabbed the only try of the half, which he converted, the visitors led 10-3 after half an hour. Connacht, despite utilising their driving maul to effect, and reaping rewards from an erratic Ospreys’ lineout, were forced to settle for a second penalty from Nikora before the break.

Continuing their momentum, Connacht secured three successive penalties at the start of the second half, resulting in Ian Gough’s sinbinning, but they failed to capitalise.

Another knock-on five metres out resulted in a wasted chance, and critically Connacht were penalised for crossing after a superb break from Tiernan O’Halloran.

The turning point came when Duncan Jones, celebrating his 150th game, led the charge to establish territory before left wing Richard Fussell found replacement centre Sonny Parker on his inside shoulder who broke through to seal the victory, with Morgan adding the extras.

CONNACHT: G Duffy; B Tuohy, D McSharry, J Fa’afili, T O’Halloran; M Nikora, P O’Donohoe; Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Ah You; D Gannon, G Naoupu; TJ Anderson, J Muldoon, R Ofisa. Replacements: M Kearney for Anderson (h-t), N O’Connor for Nikora and F Murphy for O’Donohoe (both 51 mins), E Reynecke for Flavin and R Loughney for Wilkinson (both 54 mins), S Maguire for Ah You and M McCrea for Tuohy (both 68 mins), E Grace for Ofisa (70 mins).

OSPREYS: B Davis; T Bowe, A Bishop, A Beck, R Fussell; M Morgan, R Webb; D Jones, R Hibbard, A Jarvis; I Gough,J King; T Smith, C O’Toole, J Bearnman. Replacements: S Parker for Beck (53 mins), C Griffiths for Jarvis (57 mins), H Dirksen for Bowe (74 mins), M Davies for Hibberd (75 mins), L Peers for Gough, T Isaacs for Webb and Joe Rees for Jones (all 78 mins).

Referee: A McMenemy (SRU).