First half injuries to Jake Heenan and Jack Carty left Connacht under increasing pressure as they went down 29-7 to the Ospreys in today’s GUINNESS PRO12 clash in Swansea.
Pat Lam’s side never gave up with Sean O’Brien crossing for his first Connacht try after 75 minutes and John Cooney stepping up to convert. But the Ospreys finished with their fourth try and another bonus point win to go top of the PRO12 table.
Depleted Connacht’s hopes of avenging an earlier home defeat to the Welsh region were dented by Jake Heenan’s early departure – the key flanker was down injured when Ospreys number 8 Dan Baker opened the scoring with a 12th minute try.
After Sam Davies converted, it was a quick-fire double for the home side as flanker Olly Cracknell, who had made the midfield break in the lead up to Baker’s score, made it 14-0 as he powered through a brittle Connacht defence for a second converted effort.
Eoin McKeon made his 100th appearance for Connacht, replacing Heenan in the back row, and there were encouraging signs for the westerners as Matt Healy broke down the left wing and collected his own chip before his offload unfortunately resulted in a turnover.
Head coach Lam bemoaned the amount of possession that his charges had given away to the Ospreys, telling RTE afterwards: “Unfortunately we had 24 turnovers. We couldn’t secure our ball and a lot of that came down to execution.
“We do look like a team that is makeshift and put together. I can’t fault character. When the score got to 14-0 we were hanging in there. There was a lot of scrambling ‘D’. Unfortunately a lot of our effort was in the wrong area of the field and we were tidying up our mistakes.”
Connacht mixed the good with the bad as that gutsy defence saw impressive scrum half John Cooney put in a great clearance, however a lost lineout lifted the pressure on the Welshmen after the visitors had won a penalty at the breakdown.
The loss of Carty to a knee injury on the half hour mark brought Caolin Blade in at out-half, a position he last played in for junior club Monivea, as Connacht’s awful run of luck with injuries continued.
On the plus side, their defence managed to keep the deficit at 14 points up to half-time, with Healy doing just enough to force Justin Tipuric into touch as the Wales flanker pressed for the Ospreys’ third try of the afternoon.
Winger Danie Poolman had to fill in at inside centre following Peter Robb’s withdrawal at the interval, and the Ospreys claimed the first points of the second period with a 30-metre penalty from out-half Davies.
Retaining lineout possession was still an issue for Connacht, robbing them of hard-earned field position, and the Ospreys ended the third quarter with 24-0 advantage. They knocked a penalty into the corner, won the lineout and prop Nicky Smith eventually drove over from close range with Davies adding his third successful conversion.
Poolman came closest to opening Connacht’s account with ten minutes left as he attempted to latch onto Cooney’s kick but Dafydd Howells’ tackle denied him the score in greasy conditions.
Davies was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on the increasingly influential Cooney, who switched to stand-off. Connacht’s pressure soon paid off as following more good work by Cooney and replacement hooker Dave Heffernan, O’Brien pounced on a loose ruck ball to touch down in the corner.
It was the first try the Ospreys had conceded in the PRO12 since their match against Edinburgh on December 2 and it was converted from the touchline by Cooney, maintaining his 100% place-kicking record this season.
But there was still time for Ospreys centre Ashley Beck to snatch the bonus point as he dived over in the last play of the game, benefiting from replacement Dan Biggar’s skip pass.
With his injury-ravaged squad now turning their attention back to the Champions Cup and next Saturday’s round 5 date with Zebre at the Sportsground, Lam added: “We park the PRO12 for a few weeks and we’ve two massive games to get little Connacht into the last-eight of Champions Cup rugby which would be massive.
“We have just got to get ourselves back on the horse. We need to see what the injury situation is after today, reassess and have a good build-up.”
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