Connacht Sign Off With Swansea Defeat

It was a disappointing conclusion to the 2013/14 season for Connacht as they were beaten 45-20 by a resolute Ospreys side whose PRO12 play-off hopes were ended by Zebre in the previous round.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: OSPREYS 45 CONNACHT 20

Six tries for the hosts versus Connacht’s three was enough to seal a comprehensive win for the fifth-placed Welsh side.

Connacht’s left-footed out-half Miah Nikora opened the scoring after four minutes when the visitors were awarded a penalty from a collapsed Ospreys scrum.

Less than 10 minutes later, man-of-the-match Sam Lewis showed his flair by turning over Connacht ball at the ruck and offloading to winger Jeff Hassler who ran down the line and fought off a late challenge to touch down. Dan Biggar converted for a 7-3 lead.

Connacht got the chance to respond when Ospreys captain Alun Wyn Jones was penalised for deliberately knocking the ball out of play. Full-back Darragh Leader pinned the opposition back with a long range kick to touch.

From the resulting lineout, the ball went back to Nikora whose cross-field kick found Danie Poolman. Under pressure, the South African winger offloaded to the supporting Leader who ran over for the try and restored Connacht’s early lead.

Nikora’s conversion attempt went wide to the left of the posts to leave Pat Lam’s men 8-7 to the good.

Centre Ashley Beck got in for the hosts’ second try thanks to a quick offload from Sam Davies and Biggar’s conversion made it 14-8.

The ensuing 10 minutes were dominated by the Ospreys who increased their lead with a Biggar penalty and a third try through their skipper Jones under the posts which Biggar converted with ease.

But Lam’s young charges refused to give up and a superb lineout maul saw loosehead prop Denis Buckley force his way over on the stroke of half-time. Nikora added the conversion to keep his side in the game at 24-15 down.

But Connacht’s hope of a comeback victory was scuppered when Beck displayed great footwork to dummy and break through the Connacht defence and touch down for the bonus point try.

Biggar’s conversion gave the Ospreys a 16-point buffer and the Wales international added another to his tally when prop Nicky Smith touched down on the hour mark from a rolling maul.

With 17 minutes remaining swift hands from David Heffernan and Eoin McKeon released London Irish-bound flanker Conor Gilsenan to go over in the right corner, closing the gap to 38-20.

Nikora missed the conversion just before he was replaced by Dan Parks who came on for his 50th and final cap in a Connacht jersey.

Number 8 Dan Baker picked up the ball from the base of the scrum to crash over for Ospreys’ final try in the 68th minute. Biggar, 100% from the kicking tee tonight, added the final score.

Connacht fought hard for their fourth try at the death but it was not to be as the final whistle signalled the end of the current campaign for both sides.