Connacht
Connacht 7 - 40 Harlequins - Quins at a Canter
By Rob Murphy @ Knockon.ie
August 16 2010
Connacht kicked off their season with a heavy home defeat to a sharp and unforgiving Harlequins side at the Sportsground on Friday evening. Knock.ie's Rob Murphy was at the Sportsground to welcome in the new era for Connacht Rugby...
The Guinness Premiership side built up a 21-0 lead by the half hour mark but a Conor O’Loughlin try just before half time had Connacht back in contention for the early stages of the second half.
However with both sides making the usual raft of changes around the hour mark the game lost shape and Harlequins proved to be shaper in attack and defence scoring three tries in the final quarter to mark a comfortable victory.
Connacht were without numerous front line players, Sean Cronin and Gavin Duffy are on extended breaks due to their involvement with the summer tour while John Muldoon, Keith Matthews and Frank Murphy are among the current injury list.
That list was added to early on with stand in captain Johnny O’Connor been forced off with what looked like a leg injury. Ray Ofisa took his place and performed well but Connacht were left reeling from a 14 minute spell around the midway point of the half.
Harlequins scored three quick tries with Tom Evans getting the first, hooker Matt Cairns notching up number two while Mike Brown rounded off their first half scoring on 28 minutes. The hugely influential Evans kicked all three conversions.
O’Loughlin’s try came on the stroke of half time, it was a solo effort that stemmed from his alertness in taking a quick tap penalty on half way and bursting through a huge hole before cantering home under the posts, Keatley converted.
Connacht were more alert and aggressive on defence in the early stages of the second half, somewhat making amends for their first half errors. Replacements, Mike MCCarthy and Ofsa were to the fore at this stage but the interchanging towards the midway point of the half brought an end to the promising spell.
Quins finished very much in the ascendency although their first try of the second half came completely against the run of the play. Tom Williams intercepted Ezra Taylor’s pass as Connacht were on the attack in the visitors half. The winger sprinted half the length of the pitch to score.
That put an end to any hopes of a revival and tries from Ceri Jones and Gonzalo Camacho in the closing stages left an uneasy look on the scoreboard for the large home support to ponder. Connacht will hope for considerable improvements ahead of next Saturday’s final pre-season tussle with Saracens.
Connacht: T Nathan; T O’Halloran, N Ta’auso, A Wynne, F Carr; I Keatley, C O’Loughlin; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, J Hagen; M Swift, B Upton; A Browne, J O’Connor, M McComish.
Replacements Used: D Murphy, R Sweeney, D Buckley, D Nolan, M McCarthy, R Ofisa, E Taylor, A Kennedy, C Willis, M Nikora, E Griffin, D Fanning, S Monahan.
Harlequins: M Brown; T Williams, O Smith, J Turner-Hall, G Lowe; N Evans, K Dickson; J Marler, M Cairns, M Lambert; O Kohn, T Vallejos; C York, W Skinner (c), T Guest.
Replacements Used: J Gray, C Jones, J Johnston, P Browne, L Stevenson, D Moore, R Clegg, C Matthews, T Casson, G Camacho.
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16/08/2010 01:44
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QUIN KONG
QUIN KONG
ulster 7 bath 0 ....interception and break away try..on bbc
Try for Connor O'Loughlin, Keatley converted.
trys for Harlequins were listed but I didn't catch them.
Poor contest apparently.
Quote:LDTT
Connacht 7(7) Harlequins 40(21)
Try for Connor O'Loughlin, Keatley converted.
trys for Harlequins were listed but I didn't catch them.
Poor contest apparently.
Poor contest if you're a Connacht Supporter LDTT, beaten out the gate at home. There'd need to be a major improvement against Sarries or they'll stick a ton on us with their uncompromising style of play...
I see the future, and it's Green again...
We were blown off rucks all day, we didn't have much penetration with ball in hand as we appeared to be looking for contact most of the match and when we did break the gainline invariably there wasn't quick enough support.
We weren't able to handle their lines of running and the new defense coach was getting pretty animated on the sideline.
Our line-out was excellent and the scrum held up reasonably.
Johnny was carried off on a stretcher, hopefully it was only precautionary.
On this evidence it is going to be a long season.
Impressed with Cillian Willis, he looked very sharp when he came on, pity nobody else was on his wavelength. Ezra Taylor didn't do a whole lot, looked a bit awkward. Elwood should get him on from the start. If Johnny O' Connor is out for awhile another back row forward will need to be signed.
Didn't manage to get up to the game tonight. Dissapointing result, I suppose the positive is that there is 3 weeks until the season starts yet.
Just speculating, I don't know but maybe with all the new coaches there were new systems (e.g.defensive) in place today that the players weren't used to in a match situation. I think we'll have a much stronger back row next week, that selection this evening isn't up to it against a top team like Harlequins.
Every bad performance in recent years has been followed by a reaction so I expect a big performance when we face Saracens next week.
Can anyone tell me how the new players did, did Monahan, Fanning or Sweeney get on?
Bit concerning that our 2 wing signings are bigger than our backrow import!!! No opinion on Taylor from this game would be fair but I had hoped he would be bigger.
I was impressed with Rob Sweeneys effort and desire to be involved,competed well at ruck time but we went backwards in the scrums a bit once hagen went off but still a positive debut imo.
The 3 big issues in the game were our defensive line speed,(non existant) leading to massive numbers of missed tackles and our lack of physicality in the tackle (ofisa excluded, played like it really mattered, we really missed him last year), and our continuing inability to recognise when to run and when to kick. Keatley, Nikora, and Troy all made regular decisions to run the ball from 1st phase play when it wasnt on. Is this what they are being asked to do? if so please stop asking and lets see if Keatley can actually control a game until we get to 3rd or 4th phase at least.
For next week, I would be looking at something like this.
Carr, Monaghan, Wynne, Mathews, Fanning, Keatley, Willis, ofisa, taylor, mccomish, Mccarthy, Upton, Loughney, Flavin, Sweeney
Give a half to Murphy, Browne, Nikora, Hagen, wilkinson, and troy at 12, also like to see monaghan at 15 for a bit.
Wouldnt be too unhappy with the result, blew off a few cobwebs, would like to see a step up next week though.
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