Clinical Ospreys punish Connacht
Connacht were on the back foot from the beginning and, despite playing some enterprising rugby, they were never able to catch their hosts.
Connacht boss Michael Bradley was furious at his side’s failure to grab even a losing bonus point.
“It was a great opportunity for us. I think we were in the opposition half six times in the first half and turned the ball over each time. You cannot expect to win matches if you do that. I looked at the clock after half-time and it was 16 minutes and I was not sure if the Ospreys had touched the ball but they were much more clinical than us and that was the key difference.”
Once again Connacht suffered a nightmare start, conceding a try after three minutes when Johnny Vaughton’s good work was finished off by centre Jonathan Spratt, with outhalf Dan Biggar converting.
Thereafter Connacht took over but, despite the majority of possession, went half an hour before outhalf Ian Keatley opened their account with a penalty.
Connacht’s backs impressed in this spell with Fionn Carr, Gavin Duffy, and Keith Matthews particularly prominent.
However the home side, who edged the battle on the floor where new signing, Samoan skipper Felipo Levi, made his presence felt, showed their superiority in the tackle area, and possessed greater finishing power. After Biggar added a 41st minute penalty, the Ospreys crossed for a second try before the break — flanker Steve Tandy took Biggar’s skip pass to waltz in on the left wing for a 15-3 interval lead.
Although Connacht regained the impetus after the break and it was not until the Ospreys made the necessary bench changes, that they regained the initiative. Within minutes they had crossed for a third try. The back row had paved the way with Tom Smith barging his way through, and although Carr was finger-tip close with an intercept just yards from the Connacht line, Vaughton grabbed the loose ball to go over for his second try in the left corner to seal the issue.
Connacht were rewarded with a try from replacement Troy Nathan, which Andy Dunne converted in the 78th minute. Kieran Campbell had made the initial burst, finding Andrew Browne in support, and Nathan finished off. But it mattered little for the visitors.
OSPREYS: G Owen, K Phillips, S Parker, J Spratt, J Vaughton, D Biggar, J Nutbrown, P James, R Hibbard, C Griffiths, P Levi, A Lloyd, J Thomas, S Tandy, T Smith.
Replacements: E Shervington for Hibbard (24), F Tiatia for Lloyd, M Holah for Tandy, D Bishop for Spratt., R Bevington for Griffiths (66), R Webb for Nutbrown (74), A Beck for Parker (77).
CONNACHT: G Duffy, F Carr, N Ta’auso, K Matthews, L Bibo, I Keatley, F Murphy, B Wilkinson, S Cronin, R Morris, A Browne, A Farley, J Muldoon (capt), R Ofisa, C Rigney.
Replacements: D Gannon for Rigney (ht), A Dunne for Keatley, T Nathan for Ta’auso (65), K Campbell for Murphy (70), A Flavin for Cronin (72), R Lougheny for Wilkinjson (78).
Referee: Peter Allan (Scotland).
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