Exiles have too much power for Connacht

Connacht 10 London Irish 27:A MISERABLY wet night in the West wasn't the only thing to put something of a damp squib on Connacht's marquee European Challenge Cup fixture.

Connacht will feel the scoreline does scant justice to their efforts, for they were competitive for long stretches of the night, both on the scoreboard and the pitch, but the Exiles' Premiership-honed physicality and ruthless finishing punished their mistakes.

Connacht's huge defensive effort and willingness to throw themselves into the collisions and the breakdown kept the 4,500 crowd interested all the way.

Their pack had a real go, initially struggling in the set-pieces but manfully limiting the damage inflicted by the famed Nick Kennedy-Bob Casey combination.

They contributed handsomely with a willingness to take on Irish in a high-tempo game, with a fair amount of width themselves, though the conditions clearly curtailed both sides' ambitions.

But Irish were physically much the stronger side from one to 15, and kept the ball longer through the phases, and Connacht's higher tackle count ultimately took its toll after half-time.

Irish had bundles of power and pace out wide, and by the time Topsey Ojo's running threat finally came to fruition with their two second-half tries to complete a bonus point through some tired tackling, such was the punishing toll on the home side they ended up with a backrower, Colm Rigney, in the front row, and an outhalf, Troy Nathan, in the back row.

Still, Connacht can take consolation in knowing what London Irish have done this to some good teams this season in the Premiership, and despite the defeat the home side showed the benefits of having a first-choice team playing together pretty much en bloc for their third game in a row as well as the confidence gleaned from back-to-back wins over Leinster and Dax.

Johnny O'Connor continued his return to form with another tour de force, full of impact tackling, toiling at the breakdown and some fine ball carries, the highlight of which was his setting up of the try of the night.

Indeed, the remodelled back row worked well, with Ray Ofisa also pilfering ball and putting in trademark big hits, while Frank Murphy had another fine game, Ian Keatley outkicked Peter Hewat, Gavin Duffy maintained his return to form and Fionn Carr continued his learning curve.

Of interest to the watching Ireland coaches Declan Kidney and Gert Smal was the performance of Casey, who was noticeably energetic and mobile.

Connacht needed to take virtually all their chances but, as Michael Bradley reflected afterwards, "at this level, in terms of winning the group stages, it's all about taking your chances. We did create enough chances but we certainly didn't take them.

"The 14-point turnover at the end of the first quarter - though we bounced back well - wasn't pretty.

"We competed very well, it was a tough game of rugby, both packs went at it, but we would have wanted dryer conditions to move them around more.

"So we're disappointed to have lost at home."

Connacht were obliged to recover from a daunting start.

As forecast, the day's fine weather gave way to incessant rain in advance of the kick-off and throughout the first half, which slanted into Connacht for that first 40 minutes.

Even though Hewat began an unhappy half with the wind behind him by misjudging a 40 metre penalty, Connacht were soon peering up a proverbial hill too.

An Irish tactic was to wheel the scrum before Murphy's put-in and, for reasons best known to himself and him alone, Jeromé Garces penalised Connacht with an indirect free on the Irish 10-metre line. With the home side committed to an attacking move, Paul Hodgson tapped, kicked long, and superbly turned Liam Bibo in the tackle for Casey, Kennedy and Tonga Lea'aetoa to put Sailalal Mapusua over untouched.

Worse followed within five minutes when this time, for the same offence, Monsieur Garces awarded Connacht the tap penalty. They worked through the phases before Keatley angled a kick crossfield, which Bibo picked up brilliantly on the run. Alas, Carr couldn't hold his offload, and instead Sailosi Tagicakibau powered past two covering tackles up the touchline to half-way and passed inside for Mapusua to score untouched from half-way.

Connacht's response to this double whammy was outstanding. Andrew Farley ran back a long Hewat kick and from the recycle Murphy broke wide of one tackle on the right before working a switch with O'Connor. The flanker deftly dummied one defender and drew the last man before passing inside to Carr, who had held his line and scored niftily from 22 metres.

Keatley converted and, helped by Hewat kicking three balls long and one out on the full, contributed to Connacht having the better of the territory until half-time.

But there was a different purpose to Irish after the interval, pummelling through the phases until neat hands by Hodgson, Hewat and Seveali'i eventually saw Ojo outflank the defence.

Even so, an excellent kick, chase and tackle by Murphy earned the opportunity for Keatley to make it 10-19.

There might have been altogether different endgame had Carr not been forced onto the touchline when touching down in the corner after a brilliant run off Bibo's offload.

Likewise, had Hewat not deliberately knocked down Ray Ofisa's try-scoring pass inside to Brett Wilkinson after the latter's blockdown.

Instead, O'Connor was penalised on the deck for Hewat to make it 22-9 and Ojo capitalized upon some weary covering tackle to earn Irish the bonus point with a fine long-range effort.

Connacht's Spanish samba band kept playing as the crowd began to filter away, but next Friday night's Magners League game at home to Edinburgh is a bigger game for Connacht. It was always going to be.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 9 mins: Seveali'i try 0-5; 14: Mapasua try, Hewat con 0-12; 18: Carr try, Keatley con 7-12 (half-time 7-12); 44: Ojo try, Hewat con 7-19; 53: Keatley pen 10-19; 67: Hewat pen 10-22; 77: Ojo try 10-27.

CONNACHT:F Carr; L Bibo, G Duffy, A Wynne, J Hearty; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Morris; M Swift, A Farley; R Ofisa, J O'Connor, J Muldoon [capt]. Replacements: R Loughney for Morris (53 mins); S Cronin for Flavin (54 mins); A Browne for Swift, Morris for Wilkinson (both 60 mins); C Rigney for Morris (65 mins); A Dunne for Hearty (67 mins); T Nathan for Muldoon (72 mins); K Campbell for Murphy (78 mins).

LONDON IRISH:D Armitage; T Ojo, E Seveali'i, S Mapusua, S Tagicakibau; P Hewat, P Hodgson; A Corbisiero, J Buckland, T Lea'aetoa; N Kennedy, B Casey (capt); R Thorpe, S Armitage, C Hala'Ufia. Replacements: C Dermody for Corbisiero (half-time); D Paice for Buckland; F Rautenbach for Lea'aetoa (both 53 mins); D Danaher for Thorpe (58 mins); S Geraghty for Seveali'I (65 mins): G Johnson for Rautenbach (66 mins). Not used: T Parker.

Referee:Jeromé Garces (France)