Newcastle 29 - 5 Connacht
It was simply an injury too far for Connacht. Robbed of 19 European squad members and fielding a host of Academy players, Connacht could not stop an avenging Newcastle in Kingston Park on Sunday evening.
However Connacht still lead pool one of the Challenge Cup, but the door now has been thrown wide open for the qualification. In grabbing the bonus point, Newcastle have moved level with Brive on 11 points, now just two behind Connacht, ensuring all three sides have everything to play for in the remaining two rounds.
“It is still in our control,” said coach Pat Lam, “and we knew that going into this game. No matter what, we have to go to Brive, and if we do that job, and against Enisei at home, we will go through. We have that breathing space, so now we just park this competition and pick it back up in mid January, and now we have three big games, Ulster, Leinster and Scarlets.”
Connacht, having dominated the opening half, failed to post sufficient points, and went into the break level on 5-5. But a nightmare start to the second half in which Connacht conceded two tries in the opening five minutes put them on the back foot and the Falcons took control to post their second European win of the season.
“There were a lot of guys out there who no doubt we wanted to put through the Eagles games, but we had to put them out there. But there are still no excuses not to finish some of those opportunities off, and at the end of the day, we had the chances early on, we didn’t nail them . . .
Pressure
“Not having a TMO is hard for everyone, but we just weren’t clinical enough or composed. At half-time it was about being in the right end of the pitch and putting the pressure on, but we didn’t use the wind well and turned ball over. Probably the big call was the penalty try, so to concede a penalty try plus lose Masterson was a big point.”
Once again Connacht were not helped with yet more injuries to their back line. Both centre Peter Robb and Danie Poolman were forced off and with only two replacements available scrumhalf Caolin Blade finished on the wing, with replacement Jack Carty at fullback. In a blistering start, Connacht carved out two try-scoring opportunities.
Harshly penalised
Eoghan Masterson, from a superb break should have opened the scoring within two minutes but was harshly penalised for double movement having crashed over, while a hugely defensive Falcons repelled Connacht's attempted rolling maul from a penalty to touch after some promising carries from the Connacht backline.
Despite the possession, however, Connacht could not find the same fluidity as previous outings, particularly after Robb was forced off, necessitating another rearranged back line after 11 minutes.
Newcastle, having lived off scraps in the opening 15 minutes, bagged the opening try in their first visit to the 22. From a turnover, it was England sevens exponent, Marcus Watson, whose dancing feet evaded some six would-be Connacht tacklers to open the scoring in the 23th minute.
Connacht replied after 34 minutes when fullback Danie Poolman crashed over to bag his fifth try in six games to level the game at half-time.
However it all changed after the break. The first sucker punch came from a penalty try when Masterson was yellow carded for not retreating and referee Ben Whitehouse awarded the try and with Willis adding the extra, it put Connacht on the back foot.
Within five minutes, a lost Connacht line-out provided Newcastle with another attacking platform and a stretched Connacht defence could not stop centre Belisario Agulla crossing in the left corner.
Craig Ronaldson missed a long range penalty before but Whitehouse awarded a second penalty try, and Willis converted to wrap up the fourth try bonus, extending their lead to 24-5. A minute later Watson finished off an unlikely counterattack from deep which Connacht simply failed to halt with some porous defence.
