The Edinburgh back three looked very good with ball in hand. I wonder if the plan was to avoid kicking to keep it away from them, even in the first half. If that was the plan I could understand it, but it was still silly. We hardly got out of our half in the second half, they knew exactly what to do, and it wasn't rocket science!

Exeter players seemed quite exhausted today too. Prop injured, soft tries and drop goal conceeded

Really didn't understand the first half tactics. Watching Connacht's play had me questioning which team had the wind advantage. Should have kicked more to keep them pinned in their own end. Ref equally poor for both teams, did not lose the game for Connacht. Hope they can bounce back against Exeter but there looks like a number of tired body's out there. It will be tough.

We don't have enough carriers to win against a big pack in bad conditions. They are players like Denton and Ford who are big ball carriers who break the gainline at will. Our guys don't do that and we need to get some prime beef in. I'd said it all season we are too lighweight in the pack to get into an arm wrestle with anyone.

At least we got the bonus but Nikora didn't use the conditions well either. We passed the ball far too much in the first half

He's a poor ref, but he didn't cost us the game. Not playing territory in the first half with the wind at our backs, not trying a single up and under when we had 3 fullbacks in the backline, and not being able to keep the set pieces from falling apart after substitutions cost us that game.

Cooneys pen was for been stupid, you cant take the other scrum half out like that in front of the ref but the simple fact is Edinburgh had a maul decision against them in the first half inside our 22 that was clearly wrong and allowed us to clear our lines.

I thought that the first time I saw it but then they showed from a different angle and you can clearly see that it's the Edinburgh SH whose doing the pushing. I agree with you though about the ref not losing us the game we were cat the first ten mins. Both sides has a lot to be annoyed about with the ref and I hope both sides complain about him it's the only way we'll get a better level of officiating.

we lost the game in the first 10 minutes of the first half, there was no sense of urgency from the start, i think the reason for that is that mentally we've got so used to coming back at teams and having a strong second half, unfortuantely playing against the wind in the second half it was never going to give us that luxury. I don't think we played the ref very well, he didnt want anyone near the ball at breakdown and rucks regardless if they could'nt remove themselves like the bealham penalty. the message should have gone out to the players not to even compete for the ball.

If we had started better then we would been able to hold them in the second half. Edinburgh probably just about deserved to win even though we did outplay them for long periods of the second half. Marmion had an off day but we'll let him away with that one and our backrow seemed to be below par but then not surprising with the hard games they've had to play recently.

I'm worried about the energy levels going into the Exeter game,

i posted this on another site.

You can blame the ref all you want but the simple fact is we were bested last night. Edinburgh had a simple game plan and kept to it.

Sure we had some decisions that went against us, I personally thought belhams YC was harsh, he was actually been held in by Denton but on the opposite side to the ref, Cooneys pen was for been stupid, you cant take the other scrum half out like that in front of the ref but the simple fact is Edinburgh had a maul decision against them in the first half inside our 22 that was clearly wrong and allowed us to clear our lines. Decisions tend to balance out.

We lost 4 lineouts and that's going to put you under a lot of pressure.

We passed a lot of ball to static players as opposed to players running onto the ball which ment we were under pressure all the time.

Overall we did well to get the lbp and it could be crucial in the end.
ATM we are in 6th place 5 points ahead of Scarlets we have 7 wins to their 5. It's easy to talk about easy run ins etc but we have points in the bag and no game will be easy for any team from here in.

Zebre and Trevisio have their own private battle and will cause a prob or two along the way, Scarlets Connacht Cardiff and Edinburgh are fighting for 6th and 7th and the rest are fighting for top 4 places.

We are in 6th and way ahead of where we were this time last year. Our fate is in our own hands and that's a great place to be

have no problem booing and heckling the ref for individual calls, but booing him off the pitch is not on and does nothing for anyone. Worse again is jeering an opposition kicker, to me that is unforgivable and has no place in rugby ever and anyone who did it should consider other sports where treating your opposition as the enemy is the norm.

I don't agree with booing the ref but some of his decision were terrible. I saw this on the TV and his penalty against John Cooney was frankly bizarre and I think the yellow (while coming) was harsh on Bealham. Everyone with me agreed he was making some terrible decisions and I saw this with a bunch of neutrals who weren't up for either side. We showed a real lack of cutting edge last night and while people here have criticised Nikora I think they should have a look at Carty and some of his decision making. For example the last play of the game we went through I don't know how many phases and then he kicks it away in a grubber to nothing?! Wasn't the first time he did it in the game either. Really hope Ronaldson is back for the Exeter game.

Accidentally Onside wrote: Played the conditions badly, only 6 points up with that wind was never going to be enough, but have to say I was impressed with Edinburgh. Their forwards were very good and they defended excellently and fully deserved their win.

I can take a loss, that's sport, but last night was the first time I've been embarrassed to be part of a Connacht crowd (and I've been there on nights when attendances number in the hundreds). I have no problem booing and heckling the ref for individual calls, but booing him off the pitch is not on and does nothing for anyone. Worse again is jeering an opposition kicker, to me that is unforgivable and has no place in rugby ever and anyone who did it should consider other sports where treating your opposition as the enemy is the norm.

Its a fair point but it'd be nice if you could make it without being condescending to other sports.

Accidentally Onside wrote: Played the conditions badly, only 6 points up with that wind was never going to be enough, but have to say I was impressed with Edinburgh. Their forwards were very good and they defended excellently and fully deserved their win.

I can take a loss, that's sport, but last night was the first time I've been embarrassed to be part of a Connacht crowd (and I've been there on nights when attendances number in the hundreds). I have no problem booing and heckling the ref for individual calls, but booing him off the pitch is not on and does nothing for anyone. Worse again is jeering an opposition kicker, to me that is unforgivable and has no place in rugby ever and anyone who did it should consider other sports where treating your opposition as the enemy is the norm.

yes "KICK IT FOR HIM REF" is quickly becoming the new "SPECSAVERS REF"

Played the conditions badly, only 6 points up with that wind was never going to be enough, but have to say I was impressed with Edinburgh. Their forwards were very good and they defended excellently and fully deserved their win.

I can take a loss, that's sport, but last night was the first time I've been embarrassed to be part of a Connacht crowd (and I've been there on nights when attendances number in the hundreds). I have no problem booing and heckling the ref for individual calls, but booing him off the pitch is not on and does nothing for anyone. Worse again is jeering an opposition kicker, to me that is unforgivable and has no place in rugby ever and anyone who did it should consider other sports where treating your opposition as the enemy is the norm.

Connnnnacht wrote: We need to sort out this slow start syndrome we seem to have. Playing with the gale and being 7-0 down after 23 minutes just isn't good enough.

This is a very important point which has kind of got lost during the season as we managed to dig ourselves out of trouble more often than not but there have been countless games where we haven't got out of the traps at all for at least 20-30 minutes. Its not a here and there occurrence, it has developed into a bit of a trend and its something that will need to be addressed if we are to reach our targets this season.

Last night with that wind, we needed to get into it from the off. We finished the half very strongly but the damage had been done.

Some positives from last night. Generally solid-ish defence, relatively few dropped balls given the horrible conditions, Aki played well, did his best to stay on as long as possible (and had a few words for the ref afterwards).

Tactically we were a bit of a mess last night. Add that to the fact that some of the lads that we depend on week in week out didn't seem to have the edge they usually have. You could tell they knew it themselves.

Still, roll on next week. Going to be an interesting end to the Pro12 season.

We need to sort out this slow start syndrome we seem to have. Playing with the gale and being 7-0 down after 23 minutes just isn't good enough.

If you like cynism, the only good point was that Marmion wasn't good enough tonight to make the 6 nations bench, and should be with Connacht in February/March...