AS CONNACHT BOSS Stuart Lancaster and captain Paul Boyle tried to make sense of their hammering at the hands of Leinster, the visitors celebrated their win heartily next door.
Leinster roared out a lusty rendition of the Rattlin’ Bog, with their stamping feet and drumming hands almost drowning out Lancaster and Boyle.
The Connacht head coach and his skipper were a picture of dejection after their 50-5 loss to Leo Cullen’s Leinster.
“Everything got away from us,” said Boyle.
“They won every facet of the game. I can’t think of one we won.
“It’s finding out reasons why that will be our challenge. Obviously we’ll have a big review, but it’ll be a bit of soul-searching now because they won every facet of the game.”
Lancaster’s review was similar.
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He struggled to pick out the most disappointing aspect of the night.
“Most of it,” said Lancaster.
“The first half obviously was the killer really for me. When you play against Leinster and how good they are and how good they are defensively, if you fall behind, you’re forced into a game where you’re having to overplay to catch up, really.
“And I think our error count was so high in the first half. Leinster had the wind, and obviously the rain came in, and I just felt that we gave them too much in the first half.
“So as a consequence, at half-time, you’re trying to plug the dam a bit. Second half, we made a bad job worse, so there aren’t many positives.”
It was widely anticipated that this would be a tight inter-provincial battle in Galway, but it was largely one-way traffic as seven-try Leinster ran riot.
Connacht never got going in Galway. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
The fact that Connacht had been in good attacking form in the last couple of weeks with wins over Saracens and Zebre gave their fans optimism. However, concerns about the number of points Connacht had been shipping came to the fore again. Lancaster’s team have now conceded 170 points in their last four games.
Yet the scale of this loss to Leinster came as a surprise, even if inconsistency has plagued this squad before.
“We did it last year, and that’s the most frustrating thing, in particular the Dragons away game sticks in my mind last year,” said Lancaster.
“And this time it hurts even more because we were at home; obviously it’s an inter-pro and everything else.
“We’re too inconsistent, we’re too inconsistent. We beat Saracens, it’s an amazing game, obviously, you saw the energy. Zebre was very good.
“And even though we lost a good chunk of players to Ireland, Leinster lost a lot more. I know they have great strength in depth, but we had a good team out there tonight, and mentally we need to be more consistent to be able to back up week in, week out, if we want to be there at the end of the season in the fight.
“It’s the fifth league game of the season, so it’s not like it’s the end of the season, but it feels pretty depressing having worked so hard in the pre-season and to get to the end of this block and to lose in that way at home.
“We’ve got November now, we’ve got some hard work to do, and then we’ve got nine games straight. We have inter-pros against Munster, Ulster, we’ve got La Rochelle and Toulouse, Exeter. We’ve got some big games to come.
“So we need to find some solutions, and I’ve got some good ideas about how to get into that in November, and obviously we’ll get our Ireland boys back.
“For Connacht, it’s a great strength of ours that we’ve got eight lads making the national squad, but equally we need them back at some point.”
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'They won every facet of the game' - Connacht collapse against Leinster
AS CONNACHT BOSS Stuart Lancaster and captain Paul Boyle tried to make sense of their hammering at the hands of Leinster, the visitors celebrated their win heartily next door.
Leinster roared out a lusty rendition of the Rattlin’ Bog, with their stamping feet and drumming hands almost drowning out Lancaster and Boyle.
The Connacht head coach and his skipper were a picture of dejection after their 50-5 loss to Leo Cullen’s Leinster.
“Everything got away from us,” said Boyle.
“They won every facet of the game. I can’t think of one we won.
“It’s finding out reasons why that will be our challenge. Obviously we’ll have a big review, but it’ll be a bit of soul-searching now because they won every facet of the game.”
Lancaster’s review was similar.
He struggled to pick out the most disappointing aspect of the night.
“Most of it,” said Lancaster.
“The first half obviously was the killer really for me. When you play against Leinster and how good they are and how good they are defensively, if you fall behind, you’re forced into a game where you’re having to overplay to catch up, really.
“And I think our error count was so high in the first half. Leinster had the wind, and obviously the rain came in, and I just felt that we gave them too much in the first half.
“So as a consequence, at half-time, you’re trying to plug the dam a bit. Second half, we made a bad job worse, so there aren’t many positives.”
It was widely anticipated that this would be a tight inter-provincial battle in Galway, but it was largely one-way traffic as seven-try Leinster ran riot.
The fact that Connacht had been in good attacking form in the last couple of weeks with wins over Saracens and Zebre gave their fans optimism. However, concerns about the number of points Connacht had been shipping came to the fore again. Lancaster’s team have now conceded 170 points in their last four games.
Yet the scale of this loss to Leinster came as a surprise, even if inconsistency has plagued this squad before.
“We did it last year, and that’s the most frustrating thing, in particular the Dragons away game sticks in my mind last year,” said Lancaster.
“And this time it hurts even more because we were at home; obviously it’s an inter-pro and everything else.
“We’re too inconsistent, we’re too inconsistent. We beat Saracens, it’s an amazing game, obviously, you saw the energy. Zebre was very good.
“And even though we lost a good chunk of players to Ireland, Leinster lost a lot more. I know they have great strength in depth, but we had a good team out there tonight, and mentally we need to be more consistent to be able to back up week in, week out, if we want to be there at the end of the season in the fight.
“It’s the fifth league game of the season, so it’s not like it’s the end of the season, but it feels pretty depressing having worked so hard in the pre-season and to get to the end of this block and to lose in that way at home.
“We’ve got November now, we’ve got some hard work to do, and then we’ve got nine games straight. We have inter-pros against Munster, Ulster, we’ve got La Rochelle and Toulouse, Exeter. We’ve got some big games to come.
“So we need to find some solutions, and I’ve got some good ideas about how to get into that in November, and obviously we’ll get our Ireland boys back.
“For Connacht, it’s a great strength of ours that we’ve got eight lads making the national squad, but equally we need them back at some point.”
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Connacht Dexcom Stadium Gutted Leinster Rattlin Bog Reaction URC