Stuart Lancaster pulls no punches after Connacht collapse against Dragons

Sun, 21 Dec, 2025 - 11:08

John Fallon

Stuart Lancaster said that Connacht’s shock 48-28 loss away to a Dragons side who had not won a league game in 15 months was unacceptable and that they need to get their act together in Christmas week for the visit of Ulster to Galway next Saturday.

His side, having gone 7-0 in front against the basement side, then conceded 48 points without reply in a 45-minute spell which will surely rank as one of the poorest periods the province has produced.

They were heading for a record URC defeat before Dragons, who had not won a league game since September 2024, took their foot off the pedal and Connacht struck for three tries in the closing 15 minutes to salvage a try bonus point.

“I've said to the boys in the changing room, we were miles off, miles off what I expect, miles off what we expect as coaches, what they expect of each other as players and we need to sort it out because we've got Ulster coming to our home ground just after Christmas,” said Lancaster, whose side have now lost four of their six league games in his maiden season in charge.

“I thought Dragons were very good and we were very poor. We watched Dragons over the last couple of weeks, played really well against Leinster, street-fight against Lyon and we played Black Lion and it looked like we weren’t battle-hardened, ready for the intensity, the accuracy that they brought, the passion that they brought to play in front of the home fans and fight for every point. Now, we got a point at the end but it's no consolation at all.”

He had added Irish internationals Bundee Aki and skipper Cian Prendergast — who got two of the late tries — and All Black Josh Ioane, to the side which hammered the Georgians the previous week but it still didn’t prevent a performance which has shocked and angered Connacht supporters.

Welsh rugby may be in the doldrums at the moment but this was the third side from there that Connacht have lost to this season and Lancaster, who had selected a near full strength side, said there was no danger that they underestimated the Newport side despite them not winning a league tie in 23 matches.

“No, no. You could see in the lead-up to this performance how they'd been building. I thought they were exceptional, both sides of the ball, defensively really well organised, aggressive at the ruck, accurate in attack.

“It was a performance that belies their position for sure but that doesn't excuse our lack of physicality and intent in the first half that meant the damage was done at that point. Obviously, you saw I made changes at half-time to try and spark a reaction.

“We were a man in the bin and then we made poor errors during that sinbinning period. It wasn't irretrievable at 28-7. I’ve seen teams come back three tries in the second half. It happened us against Ospreys and we were 21-0 up.

“But then we made errors in that first ten minutes during the sinbinning period and then we were chasing the again from then on. As I said, the consolation, albeit it's pretty minor, is we got a point,” he added.