Connacht remain in the lower reaches of the GUINNESS PRO12 table after succumbing to the Newport Gwent Dragons whose winger Ashton Hewitt’s brace of tries was the highlight of their 21-16 home win.
When finishing second in the standings and winning the title last season, Connacht lost only seven matches along the way. But already this season, they have suffered five PRO12 defeats and sit tenth overall before the international break.
The province had won their last seven games against the Dragons, but Kingsley Jones’ side had the measure of the westerners this time with Ashton Hewitt’s double and an 11-point kicking haul from Angus O’Brien – including two drop goals – doing the trick.
Pat Lam pointed to his side’s handling errors and missed tackles in the aftermath, along with their failure to get on the scoreboard during a promising start at Rodney Parade. With a gap in games now until the November 25 visit of Cardiff Blues to the Sportsground, Connacht will hope to have a number of injured bodies back for that crunch round 9 clash.
A spate of turnovers proved costly for Lam’s charges in Newport and the fifth minute loss of experienced second row Andrew Browne to a suspected ankle injury did not help matters.
Connacht gave away good field position through their own mistakes, and then an overthrown lineout allowed the Dragons to build for an opening 13th minute try against the run of play. Hewitt finished off a free-flowing attack, scrum half Sarel Pretorius lifting the tempo with an initial break from his own half, flanker Olly Griffiths ensuring quick ball and the home backs deftly doing the rest.
O’Brien converted and then punished Connacht for falling to roll away as the men of Gwent entered the second quarter with a 10-0 advantage. Jack Carty cancelled out those three points with a well-struck penalty goal from the 10-metre line, 24 minutes in.
As Connacht’s execution continued to let them down, the Dragons also won two penalties at the breakdown to deny the visitors some hard-earned territory and momentum. Out-half O’Brien was back in the pocket to nail a textbook drop goal in the 34th minute, before Carty reduced the half-time deficit to 13-6 with a late penalty.
O’Brien hit the right hand post with a penalty for a scrum offence just before the interval, but Connacht – despite an encouraging half-break by Bundee Aki and a maul opportunity in the 22 – fell further behind just five minutes into the second half. The jet-heeled Hewitt completed his brace by getting on the end of a clever grubber kick from Sam Beard.
The try boosted the Welsh region’s confidence further and they did well to set up O’Brien’s second drop goal in the 51st minute to leave the defending PRO12 champions 15 points adrift.
Connacht’s attack finally made some headway in and around the hour mark, a break along the right wing and Niyi Adeolokun’s chip giving the Dragons some dangerous moments in defence. The westerners at least came away with some points in the form of Carty’s 58th-minute penalty.
The introduction of Cian Kelleher on the wing saw Kiwi Stacey Ili join Aki in the centre, and the in-form Kelleher quickly led an attack up towards the hosts’ 22. Their patience was tested until Ili took advantage of a gap and offloaded for the supporting Adeolokun to run in his fourth try of the current campaign from 20 metres out.
Carty converted that 68th minute score, making it four kicks from four for him on the night, and it was his chip which launched Kelleher downfield as Connacht began to look more potent with ball in hand. However, after the replacement linked with his team captain John Muldoon, play was called back for a forward pass.
With six minutes left, Connacht held the momentum as Carty used a penalty to kick the Dragons back into their own 22. However, the visitors’ error count increased as Aki tried in vain to create another opening for winger Adeolokun out wide.
Precious possession was lost forward and into the final two minutes, the Dragons got over a ruck ball – not for the first time tonight – to force a penalty. Soon after, a Connacht high tackle saw replacement Geraint Rhys Jones go for the posts. His kick fell short and summing up the visitors’ disappointing night, they were pinged for crossing in the final play.
Although his side fought hard to take home a losing bonus point in the end, a frustrated Lam said: “We’ve let ourselves down the last two weeks with dropped balls and missed tackles. We have to take a long hard look at ourselves. We made mistakes but the Dragons were good.”
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