Connacht Suffer Setback With Heavy Loss To Glasgow

Loan signings Stephen Fitzgerald and Tom Daly scored their first tries for Connacht but a lacklustre team performance was punished in a 43-17 defeat to six-try Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun Stadium.

The second-placed Scottish side had too much firepower on the night, with scrum half George Horne’s try after just 44 seconds setting them on their way to a 24-5 half-time lead. Grant Stewart and replacement Robbie Nairn scored two tries each and Tim Swinson also touched down.

It was a disappointing night at the office for Connacht just a week on from their impressive dismissal of the Toyota Cheetahs. They are back at the Sportsground next Saturday afternoon for a must-win clash with the fifth-placed Ospreys, who are three points behind the province in the Conference A table.

Glasgow burst out of the blocks with a terrific opening try, mauling up to the halfway line before swinging the ball wide to the right where Kyle Steyn broke in between Matt Healy and Kyle Godwin and passed for the supporting Horne to finish off in the corner. Man-of-the-match Brandon Thomson converted with aplomb for a 7-0 lead.

On his 150th appearance, Kieran Marmion’s brilliant break from halfway deserved to create a score but a forward pass from Godwin let Glasgow off the hook. Young out-half Conor Fitzgerald failed to turn a scrum penalty into three points from out wide, whereas his opposite number Thomson nailed a central place-kick from the 10-metre line for 10-0.

Connacht responded with a scrum penalty won by Finlay Bealham, and a second Glasgow infringement led to the visitors’ first try. Tiernan O’Halloran did well to gather a bouncing pass under pressure from Niko Matawalu, dart towards the right wing and feed Stephen Fitzgerald who cut in past two defenders to halve the deficit.

Unfortunately the westerners failed to build on that try and coughed up cheap metres in defence, failing foul of referee Ben Whitehouse’s whistle. Second row Swinson wrestled his way over from close range on the half hour mark and hooker Stewart was propelled over the line from a 38th-minute lineout maul.

It was a double blow for Connacht with the referee sin-binning lock James Cannon for bringing the maul down. Thomson’s successful conversion was followed by tough penalty kick from Conor Fitzgerald which he pulled to the right of the posts, but the scrum was at least creating opportunities for Andy Friend’s side.

Again though, they allowed Glasgow a head-start on the resumption. Poor defence of another maul allowed Stewart to break through from ten metres out to claim a 44th-minute bonus point try, converted by Thomson for 29-5. Connacht missed out on a quick-fire reply when Godwin was adjudged to have lost control of the ball over the line.

Peter Robb ended his long injury-enforced absence from PRO14 action with his first appearance since last April, performing well in midfield during the final half-an-hour with Australian Godwin switching to out-half. Another replacement who impressed was back rower Paul Boyle who burrowed over for his fifth try of the PRO14 campaign.

The hosts went the direct route to set up Nairns’ first try of the night which the South African-born Thomson converted to completed his 13-point haul. Connacht snapped back with their third try, replacement Cian Kelleher gobbling up O’Halloran’s kick in behind the defence and linking with Godwin who released Daly to go over from a few metres out.

Godwin’s conversion proved to be Connacht’s final scoring act, however, as their push for a try-scoring bonus point failed to materialise during the final 10 minutes. Instead it was Nairn who wrapped up the scoring in the right corner via a well-weighted cross-field kick from full-back Ruaridh Jackson.