GLASGOW Warriors will have to become the first side to win an away semi-final in the Pro12 play-offs if they are to retain their crown, after they paid a hefty price for ill-discipline in the Galway rain yesterday.
The champions will return to the west of Ireland in two weeks needing to reverse this result against a Connacht side who will now have home advantage in their first semi-final.
Glasgow head coach Gregor Townsend insisted it is possible for his team to go back and win.
He said: “We played a team last year in similar circumstances, Ulster, in the last game of the season. We won and then they came back the following week and played really well against us.
“We’d prefer to be at home and we went all out to try and win this game, but we know the opposition much better than we did going into today. Nothing beats that learning for the players and the coaches.”
Pat Lam’s men, bidding for the first silverware in Connacht’s history, made the most of the visitors’ infractions to bring Glasgow’s nine-match winning run to an end.
A heavy drizzle in Galway since noon ensured difficult conditions at the Sportsground but Glasgow started brightly in front of a capacity crowd of 7,800.
A break from deep by Leone Nakarawa set up an early scoring chance for the visitors when Irish centre Robbie Henshaw was penalised for not releasing, but Finn Russell wasn’t able to land the kick from 25 metres on the right.
Connacht lost Irish prop Finlay Bealham after just two minutes and Warriors also suffered a set-back when centre Alex Dunbar was injured. But while Townsend’s men dominated the opening 15 minutes when playing with the breeze, they were unable to turn this possession into scores.
Nakarawa was prominent in that opening quarter and another good break by the lock created a good opportunity that was lost when Gordon Reid knocked on.
Connacht, enjoying their best- ever season, struck for the opening score from their first attack of the game after 17 minutes, their player of the season, Bundee Aki, getting his sixth try of the campaign.
It came from a move off a lineout after a penalty to touch down the right when Stuart Hogg was pinged for not releasing. Connacht got momentum off the line-out with half-backs Kieran Marmion and AJ MacGinty combining to send Aki through, and he escaped the clutches of Ryan Wilson and Ali Price to score at the base of the right post. MacGinty landed the easy conversion.
Warriors had a chance to get off the mark after 22 minutes after winning a penalty off their own scrum just outside the 22 on the left, but Russell was unable to steer the kick between the posts.
With Connacht’s blitz giving Warriors little time to press forward, the visitors struggled to cross the gain-line while Lam’s men grew in confidence, and it took a desperate tackle from Tim Swinson to deny Aki a second try 12 minutes from the break.
Warriors were fired up from the start of the second half and got back on level terms eight minutes in. They went to touch with a penalty from 25 metres on the left and Gordon Reid peeled away to get over. Russell added the extras to make it 7-7.
But Connacht were handed a huge advantage when they countered, with referee Ian Davies dishing out a red card to Sila Puafisi after the Tongan prop appeared to head-butted Connacht’s Marmion. Connacht were unable to make their man advantage count immediately as they piled on the pressure, but more ill-discipline from the holders proved costly when captain Jonny Gray body-checked Marmion when Hogg had time to clear from the 22.
Connacht went to the left corner and while the initial foray was held, replacement out-half Shane O’Leary measured his cross-field kick superbly as his full-back Tiernan O’Halloran got in ahead of Hogg to catch the kick and touch down. O’Leary added the conversion to make it 14-7.
A draw would have been enough for the champions to secure the coveted home advantage in the semi-finals but they never looked like rescuing that against a spirited Connacht side, who fought to the end to ensure Glasgow would be back at the Sportsground.
Connacht have only lost there once during this season and if that doesn’t change in a fortnight, then Warriors will surrender their crown at probably the most unlikely venue in the competition.
Scorers: Connacht: Tries: Aki 17, O’Halloran 59. Cons: MacGinty 18, O’Leary 60.
Glasgow Warriors: Try: Reid 47. Con: Russell 48
Scoring sequence (Connacht first): 5-0, 7-0 (half-time); 7-5, 7-7, 12-7, 14-7.
Connacht: T O'Halloran; N Adeolokun, R Henshaw, B Aki (B Aki 74), M Healy; AJ MacGinty (S O’Leary 52), K Marmion (John Cooney 66); R Loughney (D Heffernan 56), T McCartney, F Bealham (R Ah You 2, JP Cooney 52,); U Dillane (Q Roux 73), A Muldowney; S O'Brien, J Heenan, J Muldoon.
Glasgow: S Hogg; T Seymour, A Dunbar (M Bennett 13), P Horne, L Jones (S Lamont 55); F Russell, A Price (Grayson Hart 70); G Reid (J Yanuyanutawa 56) ; F Brown (P MacArthur 56), S Puafisi; L Nakarawa (Swinson 78), J Gray (T Swinson 27-34); R Harley (Z Ferguson 55), R Wilson (S Favaro 66), J Strauss.
Referee: Ian Davies (Wales).
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