Ragged Edinburgh cut to pieces by Blade

EDINBURGH will head to Leicester Tigers in the Champions Cup next weekend hoping to keep their season alive after their faint hopes of making the URC knockout places all but disappeared at the Sportsground.

It was another frustrating performance from an Edinburgh side who had ample possession to win a lively contest on the new 4G surface in Galway, but they lacked the precision and guile to execute the win.

In contrast, Connacht, with Caolin Blade scoring a hat-trick of tries, punished them with much more polished play to increase their hopes of a place in the knockout phase and the Champions Cup.

The visitors enjoyed 64 per cent possession against the breeze in the first half but still went in trailing 20-7 at the interval.

After only eight minutes Cathal Forde went past Emiliano Boffelli on the outside before fending off Blair Kinghorn for the opening try.

David Hawkshaw kicked a penalty and then landed a conversion after flanker Conor Oliver touched down to make it 15-0 to Connacht after 21 minutes.

Their ability to finish chances from limited possession was in stark contrast to Edinburgh.

Kinghorn went to the corners with three penalties but while they won the lineout each time and set up the drive, they were turned over each time by a superb defence.

Their pressure finally yielded a score six minutes from the break when Fijian tighthead LeeRoy Atalifo squeezed over.

Boffelli added the simple conversion to cut the gap to 15-7 and, buoyed by that score, Edinburgh pushed forward before disaster struck when Connacht scrum-half Blade intercepted Kinghorn’s pass and ran from inside his own 22 to score and extend the lead to 20-7 at the interval.

Connacht No 8 Jarrad Butler wrapped up the bonus point early in the second-half.

Edinburgh got a glimmer of hope in 47 minutes when a break from Bill Mata was taken on by Mark Bennett. He was stopped, but Mata took it on and surged over the try line.

Boffelli’s conversion made it 27-14 before Irish flanker Conor Oliver was sin-binned in the move for not releasing.

Edinburgh made the extra man count and replacement lock Glenn Young got over after 52 minutes to cut the gap to 27-19 before he had to go off for a HIA which resulted in Connacht going down to 13 players when Oisin Dowling was then binned for the high tackle.

But that was as close as Edinburgh got. Any hope of a comeback disappeared when Boffelli was binned for a mid-air collision and at 14-a-side, it was Connacht who prospered.

Blade completed his hattrick with two tries in three minutes after hesitancy in the Edinburgh defence.

There was still time for Kinghorn to claim a try bonus but it was scant consolation after another frustrating display.