Hosts sliced apart by Connacht’s Blade

Edinburgh plunged to their sixth defeat in succession and their third in as many Guinness PRO14 games as they were uncharacteristically cut to pieces by a fastrunning and inventive Connacht side.

Prompted by man of the match Caolin Blade at scrum-half, the western Irish province scored five tries to Edinburgh’s four, and the result was not in doubt after the quickfire three scores in the first half.

The home side were m iss ing the ir international contingent, but there were enough experienced hands out there to make the defensive lapses unacceptable, and head coach Richard Cockerill has a massive job on his hands to raise morale.

Connacht had won just one win awa y from Galway in 11 months coming into the game and were missing talisman Bundee Aki but they were clearly the better side on a crisp cool night at Murrayfield.

Connacht opened with an early penalty, but Edinburgh seemed to have everything under control after a try in eight minutes.

They drove a lineout in the 22 to the line with the front row each having a pop before Nic Groom darted under a tackler to score from close range, Jaco van der Wa l t converting.

But that was the last bit of slick work from the home side for half an hour as Connacht slashed through for three excellent tries in just 14 minutes.

Scrum-half Blade struck first with a brilliant solo chip and chase from loose lineout ball up the blindside, and then stand- off Connor Fitzgerald’s pinpoint kick gave wing Sammy Arnold the score in the opposite corner.

Fitzgerald and Arnold both had to leave injured but Connacht were unde terred, full- back John Porch’s blistering pace up the left opening the gap for wing Alex Wooton to finish a 60metre score.

Edinburgh were denied an Eroni Sau try when the TMO spotted an obstruction in the build-up and Tom Daly added a penalty for the visitors, but the shellshocked home side did drive over another lineout for Mike Willemse’s try, van der Walt’s conversion reducing the deficit to 23-14 at the break.

Edinburgh again struck first in the second 40 with a third successful lineout drive for a second Willemse try, but as in the first half Connacht responded with invention and intent and Blade at the centre of it. Wooton’s second try and a close range score from hooker Shane Delahunt took them 18 points clear.

Andrew Davidson got Edinburgh’s bonus point try under the posts, but they needed another two in the seven minutes left and couldn’ t manage another one for at least a losing bonus point.

Edinburgh: Jack Blain; Eroni Sau, James Johnstone, Chris Dean, Jamie Farndale; Jaco van der Walt, Nic Groom (capt); Pierre Schoeman, Mike Willemse, WP Nel; Lewis Carmichael, Andrew Davidson; Magnus Bradbury, Ally Miller, Mesu Kunavula.

Replacements: Dave Cherry, Jamie Bhatti for Schoeman 72, Murray McCallum for Nel 56, Ja m i e Ho d g s o n for Carmichael 72, Connor Boyle for Miller 66, Henry Pyrgos for Groom 56, Nathan Chamberlain, George Taylor for Dean 65.

Glasgow head coach Danny Wilson believes his new-look side will learn valuable lessons from their 23-15 defeat by Ospreys on Saturday.

Tries from Huw Jones and George Turner put Warriors in control inside the first quarter in Swansea but they failed to build on the advantage.

Mike Willemse: Scored two tries.