Wasteful Edinburgh punished by clinical Connacht as URC season ends with home defeat

It was a game where the hosts squandered numerous good chances and lengthy periods of possession in the visitors’ 22. That only takes away a small portion of the credit that the Irish outfit deserve, though, as they were far more clinical with their chances.

The story of the match was the defensive effort from Stuart Lancaster’s men to shut out Edinburgh up until the 71st minute. It was enough to secure them a spot in the top eight, rubbing salt in the wounds of an Edinburgh side who have long since known they couldn’t achieve that.

A sold-out Hive Stadium was hoping to send off the nine senior players who were departing the club in the summer in style. The men on the pitch were also looking for a fourth win on the bounce to end what has ultimately been a disappointing campaign on a high.

However, Connacht had come to spoil the party in their pursuit of a top-eight finish and they achieved that in some style. It all began with Edinburgh pushing hard in the early stages but Shane Jennings and Josh Murphy both pulled off important turnovers to keep the home side out.

If it wasn’t heroic defending from the visitors, it was handling errors that were costing Sean Everitt’s side and they were eventually punished when, after a long period camped in the Connacht 22, a penalty for the Irish side resulted in a breakaway try then a series of passes ended with Josh Ioane crossing over.

Edinburgh responded and were back pushing for an equaliser before Hector Patterson threw an inexplicable miss pass two yards from the try line that was easily picked off by Sean Naughton. He charged down the pitch, kicked and chased, only to be denied by Harry Patterson who managed to just get there in time after a lung-bursting run. Regardless, Connacht were back in the danger zone and soon regained possession then crossed for a second a few phases later, with Shamus Hurley-Langton spotting the gap.

Connacht squeezed in one more try with the clock in first-half stoppage-time after a tap and go penalty was finished a few phases later by Joe Joyce. That made it 19-0 at the break, a scoreline that very much reflected Edinburgh’s wastefulness.

The second half was much the same, with Edinburgh having more of the ball but still unable to get across the line. It was on the hour mark that Connacht got their fourth as another handling errors saw replacement scrum half Matthew Devin scoop up the loose ball and sail in under the posts.

Edinburgh did give the Hive fans something to cheer about with their season whimpering to a close when they finally managed to burst through the white wall of visiting defenders before moving the ball around beautifully on the break for Ewan Ashman to score in the corner.

The supporters stuck around to wave off the departing players, minus Hamish Watson who is busy with loan club Leicester Tigers. They’ll be glad to see the back of this campaign and eager to see what next season holds with a significant rebuild of the squad incoming.

Your next rugby read: Former Scotland captain lands new role developing next generation