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Video - PRO14 hit by another red card as Edinburgh snatch last-gasp win over Connacht

By PA
(Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Edinburgh fly-half Nathan Chamberlain converted his own last-gasp try to rescue a 15-14 victory from the jaws of defeat against 14-man Connacht at the Sportsground.

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Captain Jarrad Butler’s 56th-minute dismissal for a high tackle left Connacht clinging on, but fly-half Chamberlain slalomed through for the killer score which keeps his side in contention for Champions Cup rugby next season.

With first use of a blustery wind, Connacht bookended the first half with tries from academy centre Sean O’Brien – on his first start – and Shane Delahunt to lead 14-5.

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Magnus Bradbury touched down for Edinburgh on the half-hour mark and they left it late to punish 14-man Connacht. Chamberlain drew them closer with a penalty before using late line-out possession to slip in under the posts.

The Scottish side, whose game last week against Benetton was postponed, came under immediate pressure with Gavin Thornbury, the eventual Guinness player-of-the-match, charging down a Charlie Shiel kick.

The hosts kept pressing and worked the ball wide for 22-year-old centre O’Brien to power over in the fourth minute. Jack Carty converted for a 7-0 lead.

A terrific no-look inside pass from prop Lee-Roy Atalifo saw Edinburgh finally fire in attack. Fellow front-rowers Michael Willemse and Pierre Schoeman gained good ground before Bradbury knocked on.

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There was no mistake from the Edinburgh lock in the 31st minute as he finished off some patient round-the-corner driving. Bradbury’s try owed much to a brilliant initial break past halfway from Chamberlain.

However, with tighthead Jack Aungier carrying forcefully, Connacht hit back on the stroke of half-time. Hooker Delahunt crossed from a second maul attempt near the left corner and Carty added a crisp conversion for a 14-5 half-time advantage.

The third quarter developed into a bit of a stalemate, with Edinburgh failing to profit from an advancing maul and the Westerners unable to build on a threatening burst from Alex Wootton.

The game swung massively in Edinburgh’s favour when Butler was dismissed for his head-high tackle on Andrew Davidson, which referee Chris Busby deemed a ‘shoulder charge’ with ‘no wrap’.

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Eroni Sau surged up inside Connacht 22-metre line, and although the home defence held firm, Chamberlain made it a six-point game with a 69th-minute penalty.

Although a Niall Murray line-out steal edged Connacht closer to the finish line, some costly penalties pinned the Irish province back and Chamberlain exposed some tiring tackling to touch down and add the vital conversion.

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f
fl 3 hours ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"

I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.

But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.


Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.


"I'm afraid to say"

Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!

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