Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Connacht too strong for Ospreys in Guinness PRO14

Allen Clarke

Connacht took advantage of a weakened and out-of-form Ospreys with a 20-10 Guinness PRO14 victory at a rain-lashed Liberty Stadium.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Irish side were indebted to tries from wing Niyi Adeolokun and centre Peter Robb, with Conor Fitzgerald kicking 10 points.

Ospreys, who have won only one of their five games in Conference A, grabbed a second-half try through hooker Sam Parry with Luke Price kicking a penalty.

South Africa lock Marvin Orie made his Ospreys debut after the three-times capped Springbok was signed on loan from Johannesburg-based side the Lions until 26 December.

Orie’s arrival allowed captain Dan Lydiate to revert to his preferred back-row role.

Number eight Dan Baker returned in place of Gareth Evans from the side beaten 28-12 in Munster last weekend.

Connacht centre Tom Farrell made his first start of the campaign following his two-try display off the bench during last weekend’s win over the Cheetahs.

ADVERTISEMENT

Connacht dominated a dreadfully organised Ospreys side and the Irish province deserved their 17-3 interval lead.

Ospreys did open the scoring on four minutes with a Price penalty, but they offered very little after that in the Swansea rain.

A minute later Ospreys conceded a very soft try when wing Adeolokun ran free up the right touchline, kicked ahead and regathered possession over the line. Fitzgerald converted.

With the Ospreys penalty count mounting Fitzgerald found the target with a penalty goal on 17 minutes.

ADVERTISEMENT

And from 10-3 down it got worse for Ospreys when captain Lydiate was sin-binned for a professional foul on his own try line.

Down to 14 men, Ospreys conceded a second try when centre Robb was put over under the posts after number eight Paul Boyle fed him off the base of a scrum.

Ospreys made a significant change at half-time, bringing on former Wales fly-half James Hook for Price.

The home performance improved, and they scored a try on 56 minutes when hooker Parry squeezed in at the right corner from a line-out drive. Hook converted to reduce the deficit to seven points.

But a Fitzgerald penalty five minutes later as Ospreys edged offside gave Connacht a 10-point cushion they were not to relinquish as the home side failed to score again.

With the last kick of the match Ospreys full-back Cai Evans missed a long-range penalty shot which would have given them a losing bonus point.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 30 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

31 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ 'England's blanket of despair feels overdone - they are not a team in freefall' 'England's blanket of despair feels overdone - they are not a team in freefall'
Search