Celtic League/ Connacht 13 Neath-Swansea Ospreys 22: As ever, Connacht weren't inclined to roll over and have their tummies tickled despite looking as if they were primed for a serious mauling when somewhat supinely conceding three tries in the first 34 minutes.
Once again, they fought the good fight, but came up frustratingly short of the bonus point which would have seriously enhanced their hopes of qualifying for next season's European Cup.
On Eric Elwood's farewell appearance at the Sportsground, after 17 remarkable years representing his beloved province, Connacht will thus have plenty to rue. They were too standoffish in the opening quarter, seemingly suffering another of those post-Euro hangovers that have regularly afflicted them when they return to the Celtic League.
That said, the newly crowned champions looked a class act in much of what they did, bossing the set-pieces and the contact areas to run their impressive, well-drilled patterns as well as showing a much sharper cutting edge.
Connacht, much more aggressive in the tackle area and boosted by a welter of impact replacements, took the game to the Ospreys thereafter. They created openings and, encouraged by a trademark mauling try before the interval, peppered the corners with penalties in opting for short-range lineouts on seven occasions after the interval.
In the circumstances, to get within a last-ditch kick of a potentially crucial bonus point was quite an achievement. But aside from forcing the pass too often, they'll also reflect and wonder if they mightn't have been better off chipping away at their deficit with three-pointers to obtain that elusive bonus point.
Ulster having done them no favours on Friday night, Connacht are now only one point ahead of Cardiff in what looks like a last weekend contest between the two for the European Cup play-off place against a third-ranked Italian side. With the Welsh side at home to the bottom-placed Borders on Friday night, Michael Bradley and his Connacht side are presuming that Cardiff will procure five points from that game, and, as they also have a better points differential, it would now appear that Connacht will have to do likewise away to the Dragons next Saturday. "Well, at least we know what we have to do," smiled Bradley, and they have the advantage of knowing exactly what they'll have to do come the 5.30pm kick-off next Saturday.
"The first-half was very disappointing. We gave them too much of a lead, and they're too good a side to give a lead. We went for the high percentage of going to the corner and got about a 50 per cent return. Some days it works for you, some days it doesn't."
Sporting scripts rarely work out as they are meant to and the defeat marked an anticlimactic swangsong of sorts for Elwood - assuredly Connacht's greatest ever servant. Almost as popular as Gavin Henson in the post-match hunt for autographs - though as he admitted himself not quite - the final call came after 53 minutes as part of a triple substitution. He waved to the good-sized, sun-kissed Galway crowd and departed to chants of "Er-ic, Er-ic, Er-ic", which would be repeated after the final whistle.
"It feels strange. I don't know what to think," he admitted, not quite able to grasp the magnitude of the personal landmark so quickly, but all of it overshadowed, of course, by the defeat. "We wanted a good start, we spoke beforehand of a good start, but then gave them what seemed to me like three soft tries, and we were playing catch-up after that. We had our destiny in our own hands and to get nothing was disappointing. But we'll just have to give it everything next week. We still have one more chance."
After Mark McHugh and Henson, playing at fullback, exchanged penalties, the Ospreys got their patterns going. Off a recycled scrum, Jonathan Thomas rumbled over from Matthew Jones's inside pass; off a John Fogarty overthrow they kept their width for Henson to outflank the first line of defence from David Bishop's cut-out pass. Then, recycling line-out ball in midfield they came back to the left flank where Henson took the ball at pace, straightened and passed inside to Bishop whose one-handed looped pass put the ever-dangerous Shane Williams over in the corner.
The Ospreys, who like all winning sides live on the fringes of the laws, saw Ryan Jones and Duncan Jones binned for collapsed mauls amid arguments for a penalty try before Matt Lacey claimed the score at the third attempt off Craig Short's take to make it 22-8 at the break.
Hitherto suffocated by the Ospreys' blitz defence, the arrival of Paul Warwick and his high-risk, long passing game suddenly gave Connacht width, but despite freeing Bernard Jackman (twice) and Matt Mostyn, they couldn't convert their openings until finally Mike Carroll beat a tackle and offloaded for Mostyn to break another tackle and roll over the line. Alas, McHugh missed a difficult conversion from a wide angle into a crossfield wind, and so if Connacht are to make it into the Eurpean Cup, they are going to have to do it the hard way.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 mins: McHugh pen 3-0; 17: Henson pen 3-3; 22: Thomas try, Henson con 3-10; 29: Henson try 3-15; 34: S Williams try, Henson con 3-22; 38: Lacey try 8-22; (half-time 8-22); 84: Mostyn try 13-22.
CONNACHT: M Mostyn; C McPhillips, D Yapp, M McHugh, D Slemen; E Elwood, C Keane; R Hogan, J Fogarty, S Knoop, C Short, A Farley (capt), M Swift, M lacey, J O'Sullivan. Replacements: B O'Connor for Swift (39-40 mins), A Clarke for Swift (42-50 mins), B Jackman for Fogarty, J Downey for Slemen, P Warwick for Elwood (all 53 mins), M Carroll for Farley, M Walls for keane (both 68 mins). Sinbinned: S Knoop (40-50 mins).
THE OSPREYS: G Henson; S Terblanche, D Bishop, S Parker, S Williams; M Jones, J Spice; D Jones, B Williams (capt), A Jones, A Newman, J Thomas, R Jones, R Pugh, J Bater. Replacements: P James for Terblanche (42-48 mins) and for D Jones (78 mins), L Bateman for Newman (64 mins), R Mustoe for M Jones (67 mins), B Williams for Hibbard, A Millward for A Jones, S tandy for Pugh (all 78 mins), A Jones for Millward (80 mins). Sinbinned: R Jones (37-47 mins), D Jones (38-48 mins).
Referee: I Heard (Scotland).
