Right.. Rather frustrating.
At the moment in table Connacht on 14 points and Cardiff on 7. We could have been on 17 and Cardif still on 5 with more ruthelessness. Can't afford to let our rivals for 6th get these kinda points. Hell even stopping Cardiff getting a LBP be just as important as a TBP..

The people around me in the Clan were in two mindsets when we won the pen off the 5m scrum: The Go For 3 Points camp (on which I was a member) and The Go For Scrum camp (of which I understood where they were coming from, we had just had a strong scrum). We then all formed at coalition of "Dafuq?" camp when opted for lineout. Not ALL the blame can be given to Heff as seemed be a complete collapse of communication. For one throw in first half, Roux did a fake jump in middle- Heff threw to the back of the lineout but no one went up or ran onto it from tail end..

Thought Roux was rather disapointing last night- Muldowney offered more when he came on. I'd start Aly and Mick and have Swifty on bench for Treviso.
Ronaldson at 10 next week with McSharry at 12? Craigs goal kicking one of the major positives to come out of game. Also has Mils been teaching Marmion the art of the sidestep? He has truely MASTERED it..

I'm not trying to rewrite history here and I agree that the lineout was generally below par, but wasn't White's try scored off a lineout? There was probably an argument at the time that even if we weren't going to maul it over the line as long as we maintained possession from the linout positive things were happening? Also as pointed out that lineout where the ballboy threw in a second ball was a super opportunity and the first throw was perfect, the momentum from that particular play was gone second time around even though we more or less still secured the ball again.

I agree with everything already said about our lineout etc, but I'd also say I was disappointed with the defense at times. The first try for Cardiff in particular was soft and the result of players switching off. Obviously will need to see the highlights again to make a full decision but as much as our tryscoring was fairly clinical (3 tries from the first three visits to the 22?) there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of game management from both Carty and Muldoon as well as maintaining focus for the entire 80, in particular the principle of doing the simple things well and cutting out errors like dropping restarts.

Ok so heffernans throwing wasn't great but for every single lineout they were able to get a jumper up right in front of ours making it much harder. Where as on their lineouts they were getting jumpers unchallenged in the air. The whole lineout process for us last night was too slow and predictable

Felt bad for Heffernan. He's really played well up until last night and the line outs just weren't working. His throws were awful. Cannot understand why they thought they should keep going for the line out rather than the scrum.

Looks like others here said it was a try so I'll stand corrected

Some say shouldn't of gone for try bonus till the game was won, being 14 points up is game over for me. Remember when we played Zebre in Heineken cup in parma, going for points when game was over rather than trys.

The drop kick in the end wasn't on. When jack got the ball, he went for it noo matter what when he should of checked and passed as he was blocked down fairly quickly.

Btw when we won the penalty of the scrum early second half and went for lineout, the connacht bench made a sign to go for another scrum but wasn't listened to

I'm really really disappointed this morning, what happened
Going from pushing for try bonus with 35 mins to go and up 14 points
We won a penalty of a 5 metre scrum and we go down the line, crazy
Scrum again, penalty, scrum again penalty try.
We had a much better scrum than Cardiff, and a dodgy lineout and we went for the lineout
On the try in the end, hand hit the padding, than went back before hitting the ground. When the ball was "grounded" he was 4 or 5 inch from the padding plus the width of his arm
If in doubt the ref and tmo shouldn't of given it

Always easy to say in hindsight, but with just a two score lead, we've got to keep the scoreboard ticking and put game beyond doubt before thinking about a bonus point. Hopefully we learn from that.
I don't know if the last try should have been awarded or not, but the 32 or so phases in the lead up......they only happened because Cardiff were allowed to throw players into rucks, off their feet and in from the side right under the refs nose.
Great to see Ronaldson nail the touchline conversions. This must be our first 100% kicking performance for a long time. Even the easier kicks were on the wrong side for a leftie, so fair dues.

I'm of two minds on the decision to go for the bonus point. It wasn't long after scoring two tries so you'd have built up some confidence and you'd really have to back yourself with a 14 point lead. The one thing that probably would have given me some pause was how poorly the lineout was going. Only in hindsight does it look like an obvious and gross mistake. Bottom line you should be able to defend a 14 point lead at home. If you can't who's to say 17-20 points is even enough of a lead to go looking for a 4th try.

Well, balls.

Cardiff and Connacht are two of the most inconsistent teams in the league and when they come together bad things happen. Turning down penalties with the form Ronaldson was showing was silly but I sympathize slightly as the whole team must be traumatized by now given the poor performance from the tee last season and thus far this season.

Their try to level it came at the end of 32 phases.

2 little small consolations :

In 2nd half, the scrum wasn't THAT dominant, pen try wouldn't have been awarded easily, and a knock-on at the base was a possibility for example

And more obviously, the last block-down on the drop could have ended a lot, lot worse......

Looked a try tbh. It was the faintest of touches but it did touch the post. Only part of the game I saw. Can't believe what I'm reading here and on score.ie. even the all blacks secure the win before going for bp. Hopefully it doesn't damage confidence too much. They really need to win next week now and resting players will probably be out as a result of this result.

Was watching on TV, looked a try to me, but it was somewhat inconclusive. Would have been unfair not to give it imo.

I'm not going blaming officials as we blew that game on our own but as a by the way was the last try grounded against the padding of the post or not, seems to be some controversy over it? They took an awful long time to make the decision. Did they get it right? Not blaming them even if they got it wrong but would be interested to hear as it was fairly inconclusive on the big screen but I'm sure those nearer the big screen or watching on TV had a closer view.

Devils own wrote: Its 2 points and good effort from the lads!
But honestly I've never seen so many bad decisions made in one game you could call it kamikaze rugby :pinch: .

You have to make the game safe before hunting bonus points.
What was muldoon thinking telling them to go for a lineout when it wasnt working all night and when we are utterly dominant in the scrum ( penalty try is a real possibilty). Then Off the pitch some random kid is allowed to throw on a extra ball after the lineout was taken and they have take it again :pinch: small things but totally crucial.
Easy shot at goal turned down to go for the corner again, that score would have made the game safe three score game crucial.
We then bring on a few weaker defenders shall we say.
The list of mistakes was very long and very frustrating.


Im flabbergasted you couldnt make it up.

Totally agree with everything there. 5 point swing towards Cardiff in the race for European rugby. Should have been a 5 and 0 instead a 2 and 2. This is the 3rd time in 4 seasons we have thrown away a significant lead at home to Cardiff and in all honestly in terms of decision making it was dire.

Even going further back to the first half, its good to vary the play sometimes but after a poor 15 minutes we had got in front and earned a penalty, a chance with 5 to half time to get into the Cardiff half and try and build on our lead or at least consolidate until half time, instead we tap and run and it ends up with a Cardiff penalty which levels it up at half time. Ok our lineout was going badly but field position at that stage is important. Make them work it back up the field.

In terms of effort I'm happy but in terms of leadership and game management tonight was disastrous. At the end we were out on our feet and the try was inevitable. Our defence around the fringes had become non-existent. To lead by 14 and concede both tries under the posts added insult to injury. If we had forced them over in the corner at least they'd have had pressure on the kick.

The atmosphere was good again tonight and the move back to Friday evenings looks positive for the moment but I think everyone was left frustrated and perplexed at how we messed that one up.

Its one of the most sickening results as a Connacht supporter for a long time as I think everyone is aware how costly this could be but we just need to get back on the horse against Treviso and keep accumulating points.

I gotta say that felt like a defeat. Really gutted and not going to rehash what went wrong The Devil's Own covered it well in their post. It's points dropped that could be vital.