Expectations of a win that could have moved the province into the top eight came to a crashing halt as the Welsh side outplayed and outmuscled their visitors at Rodney Parade on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough one to take,\u201d said Lancaster after the 20-point defeat. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some really good performances so far this season, but interlaced with (defeats against) Ospreys and Cardiff, and now this one, it\u2019s a roller coaster which we have to get over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lancaster added Connacht \u201cneed to be mentally tougher, and more consistently tougher\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to think there is enough from what we have done this season to know we are a good team, but ultimately [we need] to play at our best, and we need everyone to be tactically, technically, physically and mentally nine out of 10, or minimum eight, and we didn\u2019t have enough players at that level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Connacht's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/F3S7YRDNNJ6J6VEBPCIR5HBZTQ.jpg\")
Connacht’s Bundee Aki. Photograph: Mike Jones\/Inpho <\/p>\n
Connacht now face a tough Christmas, with derby clashes at home to Ulster and away to Leinster.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we are going into every game with an attitude to win, and we showed plenty of encouraging signs, even as bizarre as it sounds, the fight to get a bonus point at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Lancaster believes his side still have time to break into the top eight, considerable improvement will be needed on Saturday\u2019s seventh round performance, where Connacht were humbled by their hosts in claiming their first win the URC season.<\/p>\n
It was a demolition few would have expected, Dragons leading 21-7 with 32 minutes gone despite Connacht the scoring with a 10th-minute try from Sam Gilbert in his first start of the season at fullback.<\/p>\n
While the Connacht set piece proved strong, they were outplayed by Dragons, who were aided in their attempts by the westerners\u2019 porous defence. And the Welshmen had their bonus point by half-time, referee Ruairidh Campbell awarding a penalty try as he sent Paul Boyle to the bin on a yellow card.<\/p>\n
After the break, penalties kept the scoreboard ticking for the home side before tries from Rio Dyer and Che Hope, stretching their lead to 48-7. Connacht captain Cian Prendergast delivered two tries in the closing 15 minutes to leave Sean Jansen to cross the whitewash at the death for a consolation bonus point.<\/p>\n
Scoring sequence \u2013 10 mins: Gilbert try and con 0-7; 17: Burrows try, O\u2019Brien con 7-7; 25: Hope try, O\u2019Brien con 14-7; 32: Rosser try, O\u2019Brien con 21-7; 40+4: Penalty try 28-7; Half-time 28-7; 43: O\u2019Brien pen 31-7; 46: O\u2019Brien pen 34-7; 51: Dyer try, O\u2019Brien con 41-7; 61: Hope try, O\u2019Brien con 48-7; 66: Prendergast try, Gilbert con 48-14; 74: Prendergast try, Gilbert con 48-21; 80+2: Jansen try, Gilbert con 48-28. <\/p>\n
DRAGONS: A O\u2019Brien (co-capt); J Rosser, F Inisi, A Owen, R Dyer; T de Beer, C Hope; R Martinez, O Burrows, R Hunt; L Douglas, B Carter (co-capt); R Woodman, H Beddall, H Keddle. <\/p>\n
Replacements: G Roberts for Burrows (28 mins), J Morris for Martinez, C Diamini for Hunt, S Lewis-Hughes for Douglas (all 52), T Young for Keddie (55), R Williams for Hope, J Westwood for Owen, H Anderson for O\u2019Brien (all 62).<\/p>\n
CONNACHT: S Gilbert; C Mullins, C Forde, B Aki, S Bolton; J Ioane, C Blade; J Duggan, D Heffernan, S Illo; D Murray, N Murray; C Prendergast (capt), S O\u2019Brien, P Boyle. <\/p>\n
Replacements: D Tierney-Martin, D Buckley, H Gavin for Bolton (5 mins), F Bealham for Illo, J Murphy for Murray, B Murphy for Blade (all HT), S Jansen for O\u2019Brien (52), J Carty for Ioane (67).<\/p>\n
Yellow card: P Boyle (40+4 mins).<\/p>\n
Referee: R Campbell (Sco).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"URC: Dragons 48 Connacht 28 A heavy defeat to bottom-of-the-table Dragons exposed Connacht\u2019s mental fragility, according to head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28454,42,43,40,38,41,39,14881],"class_list":["post-203890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-connacht-rugby","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203890","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=203890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}