CONNACHT CAPTAIN Joe Joyce lamented his side’s naivety and lack of “street-smarts” as they missed an opportunity for a notable away win at URC champions Glasgow.
The Galway-based province closed to within five points early in the second half at 17-12 with a second try from centre David Hawkshaw before JJ Hanrahan missed a penalty and Warriors then scored a third try to make it 22-12.
But even then Connacht had two lineouts close to the Glasgow line in the final quarter, inaccuracy on both occasions costing them points.
A late converted Piers O’Conor try brought them to within three with two minutes left, but Jack Carty carelessly conceded a penalty to allow Glasgow to maintain an unbeaten regular-season home record in the URC stretching back to October 2021.
“It is a frustrated changing room,” said Joyce. “We felt we had to work incredibly hard for all our points and some of the tries we gave them were soft.
“In that second half with 20 minutes left, we should have got excited. We had an opportunity to come here to the champions and win, but we tensed up, we were a bit naïve and made too many mistakes.
“Credit to Glasgow, they are a tough side and make you work at every collision and test you at every breakdown. But we need to grow in the big moments. We had a 100% lineout (from 15 throws) but in the big moments, we had two mauls on their line and we dropped the ball in the maul.
“So [we were lacking] a bit of street-smarts there. We lost the big moments so had to work incredibly hard and we didn’t get the win.”
A fourth straight URC defeat, and a sixth in seven league matches stretching back to early October, was a comedown for Pete Wilkins’ side after impressive European Challenge Cup wins over Lyon (52-14) and away to Cardiff (28-19) in the past fortnight.
“We have shown the last two weeks we have it in us,” Joyce added. “It is about putting that out all the time. The top teams show their personality and their top game every week.
“We have showed it the last two weeks and then we have dropped off again. We have got a break now and when we come back, it is about putting our best selves out there.”
The recent Connacht ‘positive’ results did not use this 9/10 combo. And commenters are asking about the lack of energy?
Carty is a talented player but makes mistakes crucial times in crucial games. Unfair to shoehorn Forde in there as he is potentially of international standard at centre and JJ fluffed chances as well. Maybe Frawley should consider spending some quality time West of the Shannon
Unfortunately @Marc Blumer we do. Problem is our Kickers do not!!! Seems to be a CURSE!!!!!
Oh this has been ongoing since Eric Elwood Retired.
No matter who takes the kicks it’s the same outcome.
Really Hoping Sean Naughton can buck that trend. Very talented young player who has a very good boot.
We thought he would have got some meaningful gametime by now. With the URC season practically over, maybe he might get some game time.
With this performance I am glad my flights were cancelled on Friday.
I don’t understand why no one in the West seems to think kicking off the tee is just as important as anything else. Convert trys. Convert penalties. Win game. If you #10 is not a star off the tee, find another player who can – any player can kick. J.J. does his job and none of this conversation is happening with zero other changes. Missing a make-able penalty is MUCH worse than ball handling errors in driving rain. Can we, for once, hold kickers accountable?
Also, maybe try a drop goal every third game just to get good at it and make defense a step slower. Argh!!!!!!!!!