Ospreys make light work of Connacht

Ospreys have swept champions Connacht aside with a 29-7 bonus-point victory at Liberty Stadium in the Pro12.

Tries from Dan Baker, Olly Cracknell, Nicky Smith and Ashley Beck saw Ospreys storm past a disjointed Connacht side to move the top of the table.

Pat Lam’s Connacht could only muster one score from Sean O’Brien late on, which John Cooney converted, to leave them languishing 19 points off the play-off positions in eighth in the table.

Twelve minutes into the encounter at Liberty Stadium, it was Ospreys that broke the deadlock, with Baker collecting from the back of a ruck five metres from the Connacht line and diving over the whitewash, with Davies converting.

A few minutes later the Welsh region stretched further ahead with Davies throwing a flat pass for Cracknell to take at speed and break the Connacht defence for try number two; Davies made it two from two with the spot kick.

A first half of little joy for Lam’s team went futher downhill when they lost star outhalf Jack Carty to injury on the half hour, with a suspected ACL issue; Caolin Blade entered the fray in his stead.

The Westerners fell further behind immediately after the restart with Davies slotting a penalty to edge the home team 17 points clear. The Irish province needed to score next in order to keep in touch but it went the other way with Smith barging over from close distance for a third Ospreys try and Davies again adding the booted points as they moved into a virtually unassailable position with just 20 minutes remaining.

Connacht were given the tiniest glimmer of hope when Davies was sin binned for a high tackle on John Cooney, with less than ten minutes remaining. However, it still remained a mountain to climb with three converted tries and a penalty needed just to tie the scores.

The man advantage paid dividends for Connacht with the ball popping out the side of a ruck and O’Brien seizing the opportunity to score in the corner, before Cooney added the conversion.

That resurgence was short lived; however, as Ospreys crossed for a bonus-point fourth try in the dying minutes with the ball being spread wide and Beck collecting to dive over in the corner for his 12^th five-pointer of the season.

Photo: Inpho/Simon King

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