Following Connacht’s 24-19 win over Cardiff in the URC, here are our five key takeaways from an enthralling contest at the Dexcom Stadium in Galway.
The top line
Connacht set the tone right from the off, and they capitalised on that with two tries in the opening 20 minutes. A silky strike play found the ball in Josh Ioane’s hands, who sliced through the Cardiff defence to put the try on a plate for the supporting Ben Murphy for the opener.
The second came via a more direct approach, as Shamus Hurley-Langton powered over from short range after some strong pick-and-goes.
It was so nearly three too, and a second for Murphy, but his effort was ruled out for a knock-on in the build-up.
The scoring slowed down after that. Ioane had a golden chance to extend his side’s lead with a penalty kick, but his effort drifted just wide.
Connacht again came out strong in the second-half, and grabbed their third of the evening through David Heffernan.
Momentum quickly shifted after this, as Cardiff scored with virtually their first meaningful attack of the game. After some nice play, Reynold Lee-Lo ran a powerful line across the grain to power over from short range.
The visitors were in again after the hour mark, as they grabbed a quick-fire double. The first came through Ben Donnell, who crossed out wide following another clever strike move. His effort was swiftly followed by Callum Braley, who burrowed over from short range. Sheedy’s conversions were good, pulling the scores level heading into the final 10 minutes.
Parity didn’t last too long though, as Connacht’s replacement hooker Dylan Tierney added his name to the scoreboard as he flopped over the line from the base of a strong maul.
With the clock in the red, a pivotal turnover from Cardiff gave them one final throw of the dice, but a strong counter-ruck from Connacht brought the attack to a halt and saw them hold on to a deserved win.
Clunky game
The opening stanza of the game was delicious, genuinely delicious, but yet things quickly turned clunky.
Conditions rapidly changed, in fairness, with the wind becoming vicious, but that doesn’t excuse some of the errors both sides made. The start of the game probably left both teams a bit too enthused to play that fast, flamboyant rugby, and that probably lent itself to both teams just forcing things in attack when it wasn’t quite on.
When they did take that necessary step back, they got that sort of tempo they were both after, but again that came too infrequently for it to be a smooth watch.
You have to admire the intent to play this way, as far too often with a rotated team it can just turn into a slugathon, but they just didn’t quite have the accuracy to let it play to its fullest.
6:2 split exposed again
The 6:2 split has become a major trend in rugby at the minute, with teams right across the game keen to replicate the heroics of the Springboks and Rassie Erasmus, but in keeping with some recent high-profile incidents it was once again exposed.
Cardiff picked up an early injury to Harri Millard, their winger, and later on another injury to his replacement, Jacob Beetham, forced some rotation within the backline. They ended the game with two scrum-halves on the pitch as a result, with Callum Braley acting as the actual nine and starting scrum-half Johan Mulder slotting onto the wing.
Whilst not catastrophic, this is the latest in a line of incidents where the 6:2 split has been brought into question, and again proves just how reliant it is on versatility rather than out-and-out skills in certain positions.
When it works, the 6:2 split is brilliant, but when one thing goes wrong it ruins even the best-laid plans.
Matt Sherratt DNA
As mentioned above, the game was fairly clunky, and Cardiff didn’t really fire many shots until the final 30 minutes, but when they got going Cardiff perfectly showed the Matt Sherratt DNA and it should leave Wales fans salivating ahead of his upcoming tenure as head coach of the national side.
Cardiff looked to play fast rugby through their backline, but crucially it came after some hard work from the pack and when there was actually space to do it rather than forcing things. Yes, the execution wasn’t there for the full 80 minutes, and they will probably be kicking themselves given the rate they scored at when it clicked, but it’s the intent that matters when you’re without your big hitters and that came through in bagfuls.
Also, this is clearly the blueprint for how Sherratt wants his teams to play, and you’d expect with the players now at his disposal in the red jersey the execution should be better, and therefore it’ll function a lot smoother. This intent is the sort of attacking rugby that Wales have been crying out for a while now, and it seems they could have just that for the remainder of the Six Nations.
Brilliant Ben Murphy
23-year-old starlet Murphy was incredibly busy throughout his shift, and that could very easily push him up the Irish pecking order.
His try after seven minutes really helped his side get on to the front-foot, and he nearly added another for his efforts as well, but it was just everything around his game that caught the eye. As mentioned above, when the teams took that step back they got the sort of fizz they wanted, and for Connacht that came from Murphy. He just brought some new ideas to their attack just as things became stagnant, and that brought the best out of those around him.
Take his cheeky inside pass to Paul Boyle in the first-half, or the consistent link with Ioane, everything he did seemed to get them back on the right track.
Scrum-half is a strange position for Ireland right now. Jamison Gibson-Park is the clear starter, and potentially only behind the mercurial Antoine Dupont right now for best nine in the world, but there is still a good debate over who occupies that second spot in the depth chart. Conor Murray is reaching the end of his career, despite his classy form, Craig Casey is out of action for the time being and the likes of Nathan Doak are out of the picture right now.
Murphy is already with the Ireland squad, listed as a ‘development player’, but this performance could help him do a Gus McCarthy and earn a Test cap after being drafted in for some experience.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/connacht-v-cardiff-ireland-starlet-pushes-himself-up-the-pecking-order-with-starring-role-but-cardiff-fightback-leaves-wales-fans-salivating
