{"id":180662,"date":"2025-12-08T07:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T07:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/180662\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T07:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T07:41:07","slug":"stuart-lancasters-connacht-throw-away-21-0-challenge-cup-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/180662\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuart Lancaster’s Connacht throw away 21-0 Challenge Cup lead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ospreys<\/a> completed a stunning fightback to overturn a 21-0 deficit at Brewery Field and beat Connacht<\/a> 24-21 in their opening European Challenge Cup<\/a> pool match.<\/p>\n

Wing Iestyn Hopkins<\/a> went over for the game\u2019s decisive try with six minutes remaining, soon after Connacht fly-half Sean Naughton<\/a> had missed a crucial penalty for the visitors against their United Rugby Championship<\/a> rivals.<\/p>\n

Connacht took full advantage as Ospreys pair James Ratti<\/a> and Garyn Phillips<\/a> were sent to the sin bin within the space of 11 first-half minutes, storming into a 21-0 lead through tries from Finlay Bealham<\/a>, Sean Jansen<\/a> and Jack Aungier<\/a>, all converted by Naughton.<\/p>\n

Ospreys back-rower Harri Deaves<\/a> went over for an unconverted score on the stroke of half-time and the home side further reduced to the deficit in the second period via Phil Cokanasiga\u2019s converted try, which made it 21-12.<\/p>\n

The home side capitalised on Connacht prop Denis Buckley\u2019s yellow card and hauled themselves to within two points of the visitors when Dan Edwards converted Ryan Smith\u2019s touch down.<\/p>\n

After Naughton missed a late penalty, which would have given his side a five-point lead, Ospreys wing Hopkins went over for the match-winning try in the 74th minute to edge them 24-21 ahead and although Edwards missed the conversion, the Welsh side held on for a memorable victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ospreys completed a stunning fightback to overturn a 21-0 deficit at Brewery Field and beat Connacht 24-21 in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-180662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}