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Connacht were defeated 40 – 7 by Harlequins at the Sportsground on Friday evening. Both teams opened with flowing rugby and it looked like Connacht were getting the better of the opening exchanges but it was Harlequins who crossed the line first, after 14 minutes centre Jordan Turner-Hall touched down in the corner. Connacht were dealt a harsh blow when captain Johnny O’Connor was stretchered off after 15 minutes with a hip injury. Harlequins scored the next 2 tries through Matt Cairns and Mike Browne before scrumhalf Conor O’Loughlin crossed for Connacht just before half-time, which Ian Keatley converted leaving the score 7 points to 21 to the visitors at the break. The second half saw a number of changes to both teams with Eric Elwood taking the opportunity to see some of the new recruits in action. Darragh Fanning, Shane Monahan, Cillian Willis and Ezra Taylor all getting good game time and making the best of the occasion as did homegrown talent Dermot Murphy, Eoin Griffin and Dennis Buckley when they came on. With both teams playing open and expansive rugby it was only going to be a matter of time before one side took control and Harlequins put the game beyond Connacht’s reach with three tries in ten minutes from Tom Williams, Ceri Jones and Gonzalo Camachot with Rory Clegg converting two of them to leave the final score Connacht 7, Harlequins 40.
Speaking after the match Director of Rugby Eric Elwood said “We were very slow in our transition from attack to defence, you have to make your tackles, work hard on your defence to get the ball back and I though some of their scores were quite easily preventable.” “That’s a disappointing result, to concede 6 tries at home, our focus now is to rectify some of the areas that were highlighted, we have to respect and generate fast go-forward ball and work on our defence as well, that’s not how Connacht teams defend”
Connacht face Saracens next Saturday 6.30pm in the Sportsground in the final prematch fixture before the Magners’ League kicks off on the 4th of September with a home fixture against the Dragons.
Connacht: T Nathan, T O’Halloran, N Ta’auso, A Wynne, F Carr, I Keatley, C O’Loughlin, B Wilkinson, A Flavin, J Hagan, M Swift, B Upton, A Browne, J O’Connor (C), M McComish.
Replacements: Ray Ofisa for O’Connor 15mins, Mike CcCarthy for Swift 40mins, Cillian Willis for O’Loughlin 40mins, Miah Nikora for Keatley 40miins, Rob Sweeney for Hagan 51mins, Ezra Taylor for Browne 61mins, Shane Monahan for O’Halloran 56mins, Dermot Murphy for Flavin 63mins, Eoin Griffin for Ta’auso 64mins, Dave Nolan for McComish 64miins, Darragh Fanning for Carr 69mins, Dennis Buckley for Brett Wilkinson 76mins.
Harlequins: M Brown, T Williams, O Smith, J Turner-hall, G Lowe, N Evans, K Dickson, J Marler, M Cairns, M Lambert, O Kohn, T Vallejos, C York, W Skinner (C), T Guest
Replacements: Joe Gray, Ceri Jones, James Johnston, Peter Browne, Lewis Stevenson, David Moore, Rory Clegg, Charlie Mattews, Tom Casson, Gonzalo Camacho
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