News article – Style E 6273

…Michael Bradley…

Currently seventh in the Magners League table, Connacht are five points better off than they were this time last season and coach Michael Bradley was delighted with Friday’s display against Edinburgh.

After the previous week’s 37-15 loss to Llanelli, the westerners showed renewed strength to come back from a 19-13 deficit at the Sportsground and rescue a 22-22 draw with the Gunners.

Recognising the effort shown by his players, Bradley said: “This game was back up there with the displays against the Borders and the Ospreys. Two wins and a draw is a great return from our first four games.

“We’ve always talked about this stretch of home games giving up the chance to put down a marker and get some momentum going. I think we’ve achieved that so far and hopefully we can keep it going against Leinster next week.”

Welsh referee James Jones sin-binned a total of five players during Friday’s game, all in the final half-hour, and Edinburgh coach Lynn Howells, in his first game in charge, was left scratching his head with some of the decisions.

“The sin-binnings certainly didn’t help the flow of the game. It was a lottery with the decisions. Until we see the video, it is difficult to see where the problems were,” Howells admitted.

“We were in control for the first half, but lost our way in the second. We really made too many unforced errors, lost the ball in contact too much, and we need to move forward in terms of our own defence – it’s a bit static.”

Positives for the Gunners included their lineout and scrum, although Howells was quick to point out that his side “had created chances but failed to finish them off.” Murrayfield hosts a mouth-watering Scottish derby between Edinburgh and Glasgow next Friday.