Connacht book place URC quarter-finals with big win in Edinburgh

“Once the whistle went, I was asking everyone what the other results were because we have worked so hard for this and the group deserves this,” said Cian Prendergast.

Fri, 15 May, 2026 - 22:05

John Fallon

Edinburgh 5 Connacht 26

Skipper Cian Prendergast led from the front as Connacht booked a place in the URC knockout stages when they made the most of what they created to make it eight wins from their last nine league games to advance to the quarter-finals.

Having won only two of their opening nine games, Stuart Lancaster’s men turned their season around with a massive surge and with Ulster losing to Glasgow Warriors, they are now in the quarter-finals.

“Once the whistle went, I was asking everyone what the other results were because we have worked so hard for this and the group deserves this,” said Prendergast.

The massive improvement in Connacht’s defence since January has been the main reason for their surge and it was to the fore in the opening quarter in this one when they kept their line intact despite Edinburgh having 75% possession.

Locks Josh Murphy and Joe Joyce led the way in holding the Scots at bay, with Edinburgh showing plenty of ambition despite being well out of contention for qualification, constantly going to the corners rather than the posts from a string of penalties.

But as they butchered chance after chance it was easy to see why Edinburgh’s campaign was over from a long way out, even if they came into this one on the back of three wins in succession.

Connacht, with skipper Prendergast outstanding, saturated the pressure and then struck after 24 minutes with Sean Jansen breaking from deep inside his own 22 from a scrum, with Shayne Bolton carrying forward for Harry West to send Josh Ioane away and he did superbly to skip a couple of tackles and score in the right corner.

Edinburgh got on top again but couldn’t find a way through and Connacht countered again from, working it through multiple hands before a series of surges finished with Shamus Hurley-Langton diving through to score under the posts. Sam Gilbert converted to make it 12-0 four minutes from the break.

And they pushed on from there, piling on the pressure from a tapped penalty before Hurley-Langton squeezed over, with Gilbert converting to make it 19-0 at the break.

Connacht, who lost impressive centre Harry West to a hamstring injury in the opening half, again had to saturate after the restart and didn’t get into the Edinburgh half until the start of the final quarter.

But they again made it count with replacement scrumhalf Matthew Devine — who is heading to Ulster next season — hacking from inside his own half with the ball bouncing up kindly for him to run from deep to score the posts to secure the bonus point.

Duhan van der Merwe set up hooker Ewan Ashman for his ninth try of the season as Edinburgh finally found a way through eight minutes from time, but this was Connacht’s night.

Scorers for Edinburgh

Try: E Ashman.

Scorers for Connacht

Tries: S Hurley-Langton (2), J Ioane, M Devine.

Cons: S Gilbert (3).

Edinburgh: H Paterson; D Graham, P O’Conor (J Brown 77), F Thomson, D van der Merwe; R Thompson, H Patterson (C Shiel 65); P Schoeman (B Venter 53), E Ashman (J Blyth-Lafferty 74), O Blyth-Lafferty (Paul Hill 53); M Sykes, G Young (C Hunter-Hill 57); T Dodd (T Currie 53), F Douglas (E McVie 67), M Bradbury (c).

Connacht: S Gilbert; S Jennings, H West (S Naughton 27), B Aki, S Bolton (J Carty 65); J Ioane, B Murphy (M Devine 58); B Bohan (P Dooley 50), E de Buitlear (M Yarr 68), F Bealham (S Illo 50); J Joyce, J Murphy (D O'Connor 54); C Prendergast (c), S Hurley-Langton, S Jansen (P Boyle 54).

Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa).