Aki exploits porous defence to

GLASGOW Warriors coach Danny Wilson blamed illdiscipline and some poor defending for their opening round loss in Galway.

An error-ridden first half in front of a crowd limited to just 200 provided a surreal atmosphere, but the quality of the game improved after the restart when both sides sorted out their poor discipline and Ireland centre Bundee Aki showed his class.

Wilson said: “To go away from home and score 24 points, you should win the game so it tells us a lot about the areas that we need to keep banging away at.

“I thought we had some good defensive sets and at times managed that relatively well, but we fed them a little bit at times with some poor decision-making and some poor discipline.”

Connacht were unable to translate their early dominance into points and had only a Jack Carty penalty after two minutes to show for a bright opening.

Their ill-discipline allowed Glasgow to get a foothold and while they didn’t concede while lock Quinn Roux was in the bin for a no-arms tackle, they went in at the break 7-3 down after Adam Hastings put Nick Grigg over just before the interval.

Hastings, who had earlier missed a simple penalty, landed one after the restart to extend the lead but that prompted a good response from Connacht with Aki and skipper Jarrad Butler leading the way.

Tom Farrell, after a good step inside, had his centre partner Aki on his shoulder to score, with Carty’s conversion tying the sides after 51 minutes.

Connacht piled on the pressure after that and Roux finished a sustained attack under the posts after a pop pass from Butler to make it 17-10.

But almost immediately their porous defence was

exploited when Glasgow full-back Huw Jones raced in to score under the posts. Hastings levelled with the conversion.

Carty restored Connacht’s lead with a penalty before a fine break down the left by John Porch and a chip from Alex Wootton sent Aki through for his second try in the left corner to lead 25-17 with minutes remaining.

Glasgow pushed them to the finish with Tommy Seymour scoring after an impressive move down the right. Hastings added his third conversion but Carty’s 40m penalty ensured Connacht ended a six-match losing run to Glasgow.

Man-of-the-match Butler said: “The big thing was discipline. We were just making it too easy for Glasgow. We weren’t executing in our third of the field and we were just giving up easy penalties.

“The fact we were able to get some momentum back was really pleasing.”