Connacht Make It Two Wins Out Of Two

Connacht showed terrific battling qualities as they struck late at BT Murrayfield to defeat Edinburgh 14-13 and make it two wins out of two in the GUINNESS PRO12.

Pat Lam’s men were trailing for most of the game until flanker Willie Faloon got over for a crucial 75th minute try, plunging over from a well-orchestrated lineout maul.

Full-back Darragh Leader landed three penalties from five attempts as the province claimed back-to-back victories over Edinburgh for the first time.

It was a scrappy match which was stop-start in nature due to a number of injuries, but Connacht did well to slug it out and make sure they remain at the business end of the table.

The Scots, who beat Munster in Limerick last weekend, made the perfect start with out-half Tom Heathcote slotting an early penalty to get the home side up and running. Leader (pictured below) had a chance to reply for Connacht but pushed his effort wide of the uprights.

And the westerners were made to rue that miss as an Andries Strauss tackle led to another Edinburgh penalty and Heathcote made no mistake from near halfway to make it 6-0 with 10 minutes on the clock.

Edinburgh were dominating territory and found themselves camped in the Connacht 22 but failed to get any points on the board and were pinged for not releasing the ball, giving Leader another shot at the posts. He missed with his second effort, however, which sailed wide of the right hand post.

But on 22 minutes Edinburgh were penalised for not releasing again and Leader dispatched the penalty from in front of the posts to reduce the deficit to 6-3.

Connacht looked to have the edge at the scrum time – Denis Buckley, David Heffernan and Nathan White continued their good early season form – but could not penetrate until four minutes before the break when another set piece collapsed and Leader was able to level things up with the boot.

Having done the hard work in getting level, however, Connacht could not survive until the half-time whistle as a lack of numbers out wide allowed man-of-the-match Cornell du Preez in for the first try of the night which Heathcote converted.

Edinburgh had the first chance to add to their tally after the interval when the visitors were penalised for side-entry but Heathcote missed from the 10-metre line and it remained 13-6.

With 15 minutes of the second half gone WP Nel was sent to the sin-bin for an infringement at the scrum and Leader was given another penalty shot from a similar distance and slotted it home, and the lead was down to four points.

Connacht’s efforts to haul themselves back to parity suffered a serious blow when openside Faloon was dispatched to the sin-bin with 16 minutes remaining.

Heading into the closing stages, the sides scrummed down five metres from the Connacht line and Edinburgh threw bodies at the visitors’ try-line to no avail.

But having trailed for 75 minutes, determined Connacht refused to give up and with Faloon back on the pitch they won a penalty that young out-half Jack Carty kicked for the corner.

From the resulting lineout, Lam’s charges mauled for the corner and it was Faloon who grounded the ball. Carty missed the conversion to leave Connacht with a one-point lead to protect, but they held on to secure the win and upset Edinburgh on their new hybrid pitch.

Speaking afterwards, Lam said: “Again, we’re pleased with the win but very frustrated with handling errors, dropped balls and lack of execution. It’s quite a sombre dressing room.

“We made a lot of mistakes but thankfully we kept the pressure on to grind out the win. It’s back to work on Monday for a massive week ahead of the game against Leinster.”