It was a round of games to forget for some of the Irish provinces but a great weekend out west as Connacht opened their Guinness PRO12 with a win at home to the Newport Gwent Dragons.
Munster were absolutely awful in their loss to Edinburgh but could have snuck a win right at the death but for a missed penalty from Ian Keatley.
Ulster played out a thrilling draw away to the Scarlets in Wales which was the first ever PRO12 game covered by Sky Sports. I don’t know if the big wigs at Sky, could have picked a better game in what is usually quite a flaccid league.
Leinster had the toughest test of the weekend when they lost to Glasgow Warriors away, the side they defeated in last year’s PRO12 final.
Connacht
The westerners will be delighted to come away with a 16-11 win against a side who are usually in their neck of the woods table-wise when it comes to the business end of the season. Tries from Eoin McKeon and Danie Poolman were enough to see them by a resilient Newport side at the Sportsground.
Indiscipline cost the Welsh side dear as they were reduced to 13 men for a period in the second half and Connacht capitalised with a try in the corner following an excellent cross-field kick from young Jack Carty. Connacht will take a lot of confidence from that win and they will hope to build on that when they face Edinburgh in Murrayfield next Friday evening.
Ulster
Ulster snatched a late 32-32 draw against Welsh side Scarlets on Saturday. The game itself was end to end and contained some scintillating rugby as well as a catalogue of basic errors from both sides as they got up to pace with the new season of rugby. A late try from Andrew Trimble which Ian Humphreys converted earned the northern province a hard fought draw.
Ulster will be encouraged by some of their attacking play and will be particularly impressed by Stuart Olding who was a menace throughout and had a couple of dazzling breaks. Tries for PRO12 debutants Louis Ludik and Franco Van Der Merwe will have pleased coach Les Kiss. But, Kiss is a defensive expert and will be understandably worried about how easy Ulster were cut open at various stages in the game.
They struggled throughout with the strength of number eight Rory Pitman and the pace of Gareth Davis when the scrumhalf made his trademark darting snipes around the breakdown.
Munster
Munster were on the receiving end of a disappointing 13-14 loss to Edinburgh in Thomond Park on Friday night. The southerners were truly awful and struggled to string together any coherent phases of play in a match that had all the hallmarks of the opening game of the season. The bright spark came in the form of a couple of nice driving malls and CJ Stander who showed his dynamism to burrow over for two tries.
Ian Keatley will have nightmares about the game as he missed a couple of relatively straightforward conversions as well as a long-range penalty to snatch victory at the end.
Munster will be disappointed as defeat has meant for the first time in their history, they have lost three games on the spin in fortress Thomond. Edinburgh will be delighted with the unlikely victory especially because they haven’t won on the opening day of the season since 2005.
Leinster
Leinster had the toughest assignment of all the provinces when they travelled to face last year’s finalists Glasgow. Leinster looked off pace in the opening half and were lucky to be just 19-3 down at the break after conceding three tries. It was their slow start that eventually cost them as they lost out 22-20 to the exciting Scottish side.
When Leinster finally kicked into gear in the last ten minutes, they crossed the whitewash for tries from Jack McGrath and Tom Denton which gave them a point lead coming into the closing minutes before Scottish international Stuart Hogg stepped up and nailed a last minute penalty to claim the win for Glasgow.
It was a disappointing start for Leinster who will have to improve drastically in the opening half next Saturday against the Scarlets.
Videos via PRO12 Rugby.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
