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#Betterthan1872

Connacht: 13 (13) Edinburgh Rugby: 16 (7)



Sitting in the centrally heated comfort of home, a nice glass of prosecco close at hand, watching Glasgow deny Llanelli a losing bonus point to the lilting gaulic tones of the great Hugh-Dan MacLennan and following the Embramen's clash with Connacht on Twitter.  It doesn't get much better than that - for folk of my age, at any rate.  Certainly a lot better than having to play a pivotal Pro 12 tie away from home in the middle of the last hurrah of last night's weatherbomb.  You have to be made of stern stuff.  This Embra side are looking like such a team.

The capital men followed up their fine performance in the 1872 last week with a real 'seven pointer' over sixth placed Connacht. Had they lost, it would have been game over for prospects of qualifying for top tier European rugby next season.  The defeat was the Irishmen's first at home in the Pro 12 this season. They are playing good rugby this term and had just taken care of Munster to sit on a handy 32 points, sitting eight ahead of the Embramen at this stage in the season.  This was a great win.  It's matches like these, not the glamour ties, that decide whether you're a contender at the end of the season.  It's matches like these that make one think Edinburgh can do it.

Edinburgh are now up to seventh, just five points behind Connacht in the last qualifying slot.  We're hunting you down, boys!

Ultimately, it was the side that played the conditions better, the side with the cooler heads that won this match. And SHC (CN! CG!) was at the heart of that.  A busy presence at ruck and breakdown, whose speed of thought created the Edinburgh try. He booted 11 points on a night when kicking was a bit of a lottery.  As last week, the pack collectively played a blinder, while there were good shows from the likes of Cuthbert and Fife in the backs.  The Embramen took their chances and their defence stifled the home side. 

The Gunners made a good start, playing into the strong wind.  They drove a lineout maul perilously close to the home tryline only to be turned over.  It was all Edinburgh early on until Connacht made their first inroad into Edinburgh territory on eight minutes.  Denton was penalised offside but Nikora's effort bounced off the crossbar and out for Bresler to tidy up.

On 14 minutes, SHC off maul ball flipped a pass to the speeding 'Deadly' Dougie Fife, running a lovely line off his wing to sail through a gap in the Connacht defence.  He bore down on the tryline, but was caught just short.  The Galwegians were penalised and SHC took a quick tap, setting up a couple of phases and fed Denton, who crashed over beneath the posts for a try, converted by the half back for a deserved 7-0 visiting lead.  With the first quarter coming to an end, it was odd that Connacht, playing with a gale force wind at their backs, were struggling to get field position.  Instead it was the Gunners who were dominating up front in maul and scrummage.  Their defence looked very solid.

Connacht started to get a bit of pace into their game and forced a breakdown penalty on 23 minutes.  New Zealand import Nikora landed a very good penalty from distance to get the Galwegians on the scoreboard.  Still it was the Edinburgh men who were back dominating field position and showing flashes of enterprising rugby on the counter.  At times, their handling was outstanding in atrocious conditions.

But Connacht started to exert a bit of pressure around the half hour, starting to make some relatively quick yards into the Edinburgh 22, really for the first time in the evening. 

On 36 minutes, Muldoon knocked a penalty to the corner and mauled close, then the pack drove under the posts.  Ben Toolis was carded for a breakdown offence under the posts and Connacht rightly took the scrummage.  The Edinburgh scrum collapsed under pressure and bearded whistler Leighton Hodges awarded the penalty try, converted by Nikora. One felt that the Welshman's warning to skipper Ford about further Edinburgh penalties was somewhat premature, having just sent one man to the bin.

The half ended with Connacht again on the front foot, winning an offside penalty, converted by Nikora for a 13-7 lead at the break.  On the one hand, the Gunners will have been disappointed to dominate most of the half and yet leak 10 points in the dying minutes.  Maybe there was a worry that they wouold pay for easing off in the last minutes.  That said, the Galway side must have been equally disappointed not to have taken full advantage of such a strong wind as they turned to play the next 40 into it.

The second period started well for the short-handed Embramen.  After kicking one penalty to touch, they spun the ball, with Visser coming looking for work.  SHC had an early penalty chance on 43 minutes and nailed it to narrow the gap to 13-10.  And he tied things up on 49 minutes with another long penalty. 

A classic sniping scrum half break on 54 minutes saw SHC cruise down the blindside off a retreating scrum.  He put a grubber in the direction of the enemy line and Fife slid on to the bobbling ball on the try line but didn't gain control.  So close. They did win a penalty, though, and the referee warned Connacht on the penalty count into the bargain.  The attempt on goal was not successful, but one still felt that the momentum was with the visitors.

All square going into the final quarter.  This is when you find out who wants it more. On 69 minutes, Connacht were once again penalised, Bealham killing ruck ball.  The referee was going to card one of the men in green following the previous warning and the replacement prop was the man to go.  Edinburgh were to play the rest of the match with a man advantage and things got better when SHC landed a massive kick.  16-13.  Time to kill this match.   The Gunners duly did and ran out deserved winners.