Ospreys 19

Connacht 22

By JOHN FALLON

CONNACHT will head into the November break boosted by a third win in seven games in this block in the URC after carving out a deserved win in Swansea.

The Westerners did it the hard way after coughing up a couple of early tries but they never lost their composure and were good value for their second win in a row.

But Andy Friend believes there is ample room for improvement when they launch the next block of games away to Munster later this month.

“Our performance lacked the clinical bits that we wanted,” said Friend. “There was a lot of fight. They are brave, driven men and they fight which is a great trait, but we are making life so hard for ourselves. We had six entries into the 22 in the first 25 minutes for zero return where we were turned over every single time.

“The bottom line is I am happy with the win but not as happy with the performance. We have had a really tricky start, but the bottom line is we need to be better at key areas of our game.

“I have no doubt that we will fix those, and we’ll get better, but the break has come at a good time to asses, address the problems and to see if we need to make changes.”

Connacht recovered from a disastrous start which saw them fall 12 points adrift after just eight minutes to lead 14-12 at the break after hitting back before the interval.

Head coach Pete Wilkins had warned during the week how Connacht often misfire against understrength sides and with 14 Ospreys away with the Welsh squad, few would have expected them to race into such a big lead in the opening minutes.

But the bounce of the ball favoured them and promising young out-half Jack Walsh made the most of it and lock Huw Sutton did enough to get over for a converted try inside three minutes.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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