Connacht disappoint after promising much

Celtic League/ Ospreys 31 Connacht 10:Connacht's tale of defeat in Swansea to the Ospreys summed up, in the space of 80 minutes, their Magners Celtic League season to date; after a promising start they faded badly.

The men from Galway took 10 points from their first four games with a draw and two victories, including a 15-10 win over the Ospreys at the Sportsground.

Yet since their victory over Newport Gwent Dragons four months ago, on October 13th, Connacht have lost their last seven games in the league and have only the Borders' woeful form to thank for not being at the foot of the table.

Michael Bradley's side have not been disgraced by any means in each of those losses. Nor were they on Saturday at the Liberty Stadium, where - thanks to David Slemen's try - they led 10-3 with just two minutes to go before the half-time whistle.

But the pattern of Connacht's season has been one of missed opportunities, and they were made to pay for that once again as the Ospreys took flight with three tries to rack up a distinctly flattering scoreline.

Bradley said, "It was a very close game in which both sides threw the ball around, so it was always going to come down to who made mistakes. We normally do well in close games and we produced a huge defensive effort, but mistakes late on cost us. That was disappointing after doing so well early on."

Paul Warwick traded penalties with Shaun Connor following a pointless half hour before combining strength and vision to unlock the Ospreys defence, stepping inside Justin Marshall and shrugging off prop Paul James before slipping the scoring pass to Slemen.

But Connacht took eyes off the ball and paid a heavy price when Lee Byrne went over barely two minutes later, rolling out of Mark McHugh's try-line tackle to galvanise the Ospreys.

Byrne added two penalties after the break, and a yellow card for replacement Matt Lacey on 64 minutes added to Connacht's difficulties. Lacey failed to roll away as the Ospreys surged forward through Lee Beech and Shane Williams, leaving his side a man down and soon facing an 11-point deficit when James went under the posts moments later.

Williams added an audacious drop-goal, and the Scottish referee Andy MacPherson awarded a penalty try five minutes from time.

But Connacht's performance drew high praise from Lyn Jones.

"Connacht don't lose a lot of players to international rugby but there's a lot to be said about just being a team," said the Ospreys coach. "Rugby is a team game where you rely on each other more than any other sport, and Connacht do that really well.

"People underestimate them but those people obviously don't know anything about rugby.

"They were very organised and are very hard to break down so we're more than happy with the win."

OSPREYS: L Byrne; N Walker, T Selley, A Bishop, S Williams; S Connor, J Marshall; P James (capt), H Bennett, A Millward; B Cockbain, M Powell; L Beach, J Thomas, R Pugh. Replacements: J Spice for Connor (half-time), A Jones for Millward (51 mins), T Smith for Beach (72 mins), B Williams for Bennett (75 mins), C Martenko for Byrne (78 mins).

CONNACHT: D Slemen; D Yapp, J Hearty, M McHugh, D Riordan; P Warwick , C O'Loughlin; R Hogan, J Fogarty (capt), S Knoop; D Gannon, R Strudwick; J Muldoon, R Ofisa, C Rigney. Replacements: M Lacey for Ofisa (47 mins), A Flavin for Fogarty, G Williams for Warwick, C Keane for O'Loughlin (all 67 mins), M Swift for Strudwick (71 mins), P Duncan for McHugh, B Sturgess for Hogan (both 74 mins) .

Referee: A MacPherson(SRU).