By LDTT
October 23 2006

Things started so well for Connacht against Harlequins on Friday night. Connacht had a try when Paul Warwick kicked across field to Matt Mostyn who raced up the line. With an inside pass he popped to John Hearty who handed off his tackler to score in the corner under the stand.

Warwick was unsuccessful with the conversion and the centinary cap Matt Mostyn retired injured, with Ted Robinson coming in to replace him. Harlequins were playing a very good defensive game. They kicked a lot of there possession on a night when there wasn't a breath of wind. This worked well for them in a half when they were rarely in the Connacht 22, and never threatened the Connacht line, Harlequins got 9 points on the board. Harlequins out-half Adrian Jarvis kicked his side into the lead, before Warwick pulled Connacht back within a point on the stroke of halftime.

The support may have been loud after Hearty's try, but the atmosphere failed to build from there as the crowd became increasingly frustrated with Connacht inability to break down their opponents.
Interestingly when Warwick spread the ball wide, the Connacht backs made great ground. However, the crash ball for Williams rarely paid off with similar yards.

In the second half with just a point separating the sides, Connacht were confident of keeping Harlequins tryless. Unfortunately a mix up between Riordan & Robinson when collecting a Jarvis chip allow Quins winger Tom Williams to collect and run in under the posts.

Ray Ofisa, Darren Yapp and Ted Robinson were making great yards when taking short pops off Warwicks shoulder. However there was still no way through for Connacht. Warwick closed the gap to just five points with a long range penalty, and when Rigney crashed over from the base of a ruck shortly after Quins had pulled down a Connacht maul, Warwick converted from the touchline, to give us a two point lead.

Three minutes into extra time, the Harlequins lifted dropped their jumper at the lineout, and the French referee was fooled into awarding a penalty on the 10-metre line. Jarvis split the posts, and took Harlequins into the lead again.

At the death, Connacht ran the ball wide looking for a score. Yapp popped to Ofisa on the burst, he kept going despite losing a boot, and popped to Robinson, who was hauled down five yards out. Bizarrely when the tackler failed to role away, despite five Connacht players securing the ball, Monsieur Eric Darriere gave a penalty to quins for the Connacht player not releasing the ball.

A crazy way to end the game. It's a pity when the ref makes the headlines, when in reality Connacht did do enough to win this game. But the feeling in Garveys last night was that Quins robbed us, unfairly, and the boys will be up for taking all the points away to Bath next weekend.

Connacht: Daniel Riordan; Matt Mostyn, John Hearty, Gavin Williams, Darren Yapp; Paul Warwick, Chris Keane; Ray Hogan, Adrian Flavin, Brett Sturgess, David Gannon, Andrew Farley (capt), John Muldoon, Ray Ofisa, Colm Rigney.
Replacements: Ted Robinson for Mostyn (9 mins), Brett Wilkinson for Hogan (half-time), Tom Tierney for Keane (57), John Fogarty for Flavin (59), Keith Matthews for Hearty (64), Not used: Michael Swift, Brendan O'Connor.