Following a 44-17 for Connacht over the Sharks on Saturday, here’s our five takeaways from the United Rugby Championship fixture at Dexcom Stadium in Galway.
The top line
Deserving winners Connacht briefly hit the front with a Sean Naughton penalty but they then fell behind to a 15th-minute Sharks maul try from Fez Mbatha. However, that unconverted score wasn’t a prompt for a show of dominance from the visitors.
No sooner had Jaden Hendrikse box-kicked a clearance off the restart than the South Africans folded, Connacht running it back from the halfway line with some lovely handling to score through Paul Boyle.
They were celebrating again nine minutes before the interval after Chay Mullins finished their second try at a time when Jason Jenkins was in the sin bin.
With Naughton adding penalties either side of the Mullins score, Connacht had banked a comfortable 23-5 interval lead.
A similar cushion – 21-6 – wasn’t good enough for Munster earlier on Saturday against South African opposition as the Stormers hit back to win 21-27 in Limerick, but there was no such riposte in Galway from the Sharks.
Instead, the reliable Connacht scrum was the source of possession for the 57th-minute strike play that saw centre Hugh Gavin race over. The conversion pushed the margin to 30-5 and with the result now settled, the match finished with a flurry of four tries, two to each team.
Makazole Mapimpi scored first for the Sharks, Matthew Devine hit back to secure Connacht’s four-try bonus point, Emile van Heerden added the South African’s third but the final word went to the hosts, sub prop Sam Illo getting over to complete the 27-point victory.
Hugh Gavin spots the gap, hits the gas, and leaves defenders in the rearview! 💥
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#BKTURC #URC | #CONvSHA pic.twitter.com/Jd7qgbXFEm
— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) November 29, 2025
Sacked by Christmas?
It’s a good thing that the Sharks have already announced this is John Plumtree’s final season at the helm, as fans would be calling for his head after this latest underwhelming performance.
Too much money has been invested in recent seasons in the Durban franchise, and they should be way better as a team instead of a frustrating rabble slumming it at the wrong end of the URC table.
Instead of last month’s decision about the 2026/27 season providing an immediate bounce after a start to this season that featured just one win in five, the Sharks didn’t respond at all and they paid a heavy price in the West of Ireland.
What comes next is the Champions Cup and the list is daunting: an away fixture at Toulouse next weekend followed by the hosting of Saracens in Durban.
Plumtree has been given his long-term notice, but unless he quickly addresses this disappointing level of performance, surely he could be sacked before Christmas. The way Sharks are losing just isn’t acceptable.
In-sync trio
One win in four during his opening block of fixtures in charge of Connacht was a disappointing return for new boss Stuart Lancaster. As is characteristic of teams coached by the Englishman, there is always an uptick in attack when he gets involved in a new project.
However, this implementation of a fresh front-foot approach doesn’t guarantee winning results, as Connacht experienced to their cost in previous URC outings versus the Bulls and Munster.
Easy on the eye attacking play was undermined by flaky defence, but they seem to have worked on a better balance during the international break, and this all-round display was much improved.
Several players again stood out, rampaging back-rower Boyle and out-half Josh Ioane along with the in-between link man, scrum-half Ben Murphy.
They were a lovely in-sync trio and their collective effort before Ioane’s injury exit on 46 minutes laid the foundation for Lancaster to have a smile instead of a frown at full-time.
Josh Ioane’s twinkle toes coming to life! 🕺✨
Connacht’s teamwork on full display as Paul Boyle muscles his way over the line 😮💨
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— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) November 29, 2025
Unheeded warning
There is nothing worse than a team failing to heed a warning from a referee. This match in Galway was 27 minutes old when Welsh referee Ben Breakspear took a moment to call visiting skipper Vincent Tshituka over for a word.
The message was clear. Too many breakdown penalties had been conceded, and the next one would be sanctioned with a card. With play restarting with Naughton landing a penalty to push Connacht 13-5 up, you would have imagined that the referee’s warning would have had an effect on behaviour.
Not a jot. At the breakdown that materialised from Sharks’ restart kick, Springbok lock Jason Jenkins was penalised for going off his feet. Sent to the sin-bin, he could only watch on from the sideline as his man-short team soon conceded a second try.
That small passage – which included centre Francois Venter feeling fortunate not to be carded for a head contact tackle on Shayne Bolton in the move that led to Mullins try – encapsulated how frustrating Plumtree’s Sharks are. Their bite is woefully misplaced these days.
The hosts’ scrum
Amid grave concerns about the standard of Irish scrummaging following Ireland’s front-row demolition last weekend by South Africa and then Munster’s problems earlier on Saturday versus the Stormers, it was interesting to see the defiance that existed in Connacht’s scrum.
It was rewarded twice during the first half, denying Sharks of an advantage they would clearly have hoped to gain at the set-piece.
Even after the starting props of Jordan Duggan and Jack Aungier were replaced on 50 minutes, there was no change regarding Connacht’s scrummaging fight. For instance, it was a rock-solid set-piece that allowed them to successfully attack and score through Gavin not long after.
The match then finished off with sub tighthead Illo barrelling over off a pick and go, ample reward for him keeping the scrum locked down when introduced.
READ MORE: Rassie Erasmus’ frank assessment of Eben Etzebeth’s red card