Ospreys stay alive, as Connacht slip down the rankings
MATCH REPORT: Ospreys moved into the top eight of the United Rugby Championship with a nailbiting 43-40 win over Connacht ion Swansea on Saturday.
While the bonus-point win in the 12-try thriller saw the Welsh outfit move top on the standings, their Irish rivals dropped out of the top[ 10 with a decreasing chance of making the play-offs.
Connacht and Ospreys scored half a dozen tries each, but the Irish side still fell to an eighth defeat in 13 URC games this season.
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Touchline Talk 🗣️
Hear from Keelan after a tight bonus point victory at home vs Connacht this evening 👇#TogetherAsOne pic.twitter.com/MIM30jf9ea
— Ospreys (@ospreys) March 22, 2025
Jack Walsh
In the end, they had to settle for two bonus points, which might not be enough in their battle for a play-off finish.
Connacht, who came from 24 points adrift early in the second half, pounded the Ospreys line for several minutes with the clock in the red but just couldn’t find a seventh try which would win the game.
The damage was done in a 27-spell when Ospreys scored 35 points without reply before Connacht staged a third quarter comeback in a match in which they had opened brightly as they tried to keep their outside hopes alive of a top half finish in the URC.
The scorers
For Ospreys
Tries: Giles 2, Hardy, Kasende 2, Walsh
Cons: D Edwards 5
Pen: D Edwards
For Connacht
Tries: Treacy, Boyle 2, Heffernan, O’Connor, Jansen
Cons: Ioane 2, Hanrahan 3
Teams:
Ospreys: 15 Jack Walsh, 14 Dan Kasende, 13 Evardi Boshoff, 12 Keiran Williams, 11 Keelan Giles, 10 Dan Edwards, 9 Kieran Hardy, 8 Morgan Morris, 7 Justin Tipuric (captain), 6 Morgan Morse, 5 Adam Beard, 4 James Ratti, 3 Tom Botha, 2 Sam Parry (captain), 1 Garyn Phillips
Replacements: 16 George McGuigan, 17 Steffan Thomas, 18 Ben Warren, 19 James Fender, 20 Tristan Davies, 21 Reuben Morgan-Williams, 22 Phil Cokanasiga, 23 Iestyn Hopkins
Connacht: 15 Piers O’Conor, 14 Finn Treacy, 13 Hugh Gavin, 12 Cathal Forde, 11 Shayne Bolton, 10 Josh Ioane, 9 Caolin Blade, 8 Paul Boyle, 7 Shamus Hurley-Langton, 6 Josh Murphy, 5 Joe Joyce (captain), 4 Darragh Murray, 3 Jack Aungier, 2 Dave Heffernan, 1 Denis Buckley
Replacements: 16 Dylan Tierney-Martin, 17 Temi Lasisi, 18 Sam Illo, 19 Oisin Dowling, 20 David O’Connor, 21 Matthew Devine, 22 JJ Hanrahan, 23 Sean Jansen
Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron
Assistant referees: Adam Jones, Ellis Poulden
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen
United Rugby Championship
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