A last-minute penalty from Niall O'Connor denied Glasgow a key PRO12 victory over Connacht as honours were shared 13-13 at the Sportsground on Saturday.
Glasgow opened up a 7-3 half-time lead with a converted try from Jon Welsh with O'Connor responding for the hosts.
The hosts hit back in the second period and, after Ruaridh Jackson had extended the Warriors' lead, Tiernan O'Halloran crossed the whitewash.
Substitute Duncan Weir put the visitors back into the lead before O'Connor rescued the two points and end their nine-game RaboDirect Pro12 losing streak.
Connacht went into the game on horrific run and O'Connor was struggling to relieve that pressure with two penalty opportunities going begging in the early stages.
In what was a scrappy and tense opening period, the Irish province were made to pay for those missed chances when Warriors' prop Welsh barged over. Jackson converted but Glasgow were unable to press home their advantage and Connacht, to their credit, hit back just before the interval.
Their fly-half, having skewed two earlier kicks, was on target with his third, but it was the visitors who led, 7-3, at the break.
The second half followed much the same pattern with mistakes and stout defence dominating play.
However, Jackson broke the resistance with his second three-pointer for the visitors. But when winger Tommy Seymour was sin-binned for the Warriors, O'Halloran touched down from a cross-field kick. O'Connor added the conversion to level the scores at 10-10 with 15 minutes to play, before Weir and the Connacht fly-half traded late penalties.
The scorers:
For Connacht:
Tries: O'Halloran
Con: O'Connor
Pen: O'Connor 2
For Glasgow:
Tries: Welsh
Con: Jackson
Pen: Jackson, Weir
Connacht: 15 Gavin Duffy (capt), 14 Fetu'u Vainikolo, 13 Kyle Tonetti, 12 Dave McSharry, 11 Tiernan O'Halloran, 10 Niall O'Connor, 9 Paul O'Donohoe, 8 George Naoupu, 7 Eoghan Grace, 6 John Muldoon, 5 Mike McCarthy, 4 Michael Swift, 3 Ronan Loughney, 2 Adrian Flavin, 1 Brett Wilkinson.
Replacements: 16 Ethienne Reynecke, 17 Denis Buckley, 18 Stewart Maguire, 19 Dave Gannon, 20 Mick Kearney, 21 Dave Moore, 22 Matthew Jarvis, 23 Henry Fa'afili.
Glasgow: 15 Peter Murchie, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Troy Nathan, 12 Graeme Morrison (capt), 11 David Lemi, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Henry Pyrgos, 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 Chris Fusaro, 6 Rob Harley, 5 Tom Ryder, 4 Rob Verbakel, 3 Jon Welsh, 2 Pat MacArthur, 1 Ryan Grant.
Replacements: 16 Finlay Gillies, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 George Hunter, 19 Nick Campbell, 20 Duncan Weir, 21 Alex Dunbar, 22 Colin Shaw, 23 Calum Forrester.
Referee: Peter Allan (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Leo Colgan, Sean Gallagher
Television match official: Jude Quinn
Assessor: Jack Sheehan
Comments
damo says...
I am a big fan of Connaught and their plight added to by the IRFU but I watched this game and a full strength Connaught team vs a half a Glasgow team and they played very very poorly.
I am also a fan of Elwood but here are some facts: Their defensive line out was not functioning, this can be done with basic training they were lifting after the ball had been won by Glasgow.
They played 15 yards behind the ruck on their ball and for this O'Connor at 10 needs to step up, how this could happen for 80 minutes is crazy, they make 3 passes and are back 30 yards trying to make a break, thats poor stuff.
Finally O'Connor needs to practice his kicking his lack of accuracy compounded the poor tactics employed by Connaught. To confirm I am sympathetic to their plight but come on the Glasgow outfit were there to be beaten and this wasn't executed. Individual errors (knock ons) from Duffy cost a 7 pointer and O'Connor a 3 pointer in a game where scores were hard to come by.
Sorry for being negative as there were positives from the pack charging into tackles and driving the ball up the field but the problem is mainly the backs and not the players the tactics, Eric get your 10 on the gain line and have a blitz attack not a game of pass the parcel backwards, Good luck Connaught in your next games I will be supporting you
Posted 11:13 19th February 2012