{"id":304214,"date":"2025-12-08T01:44:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T01:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/304214\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T01:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T01:44:08","slug":"stuart-lancasters-connacht-throw-away-21-0-challenge-cup-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/304214\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuart Lancaster&#8217;s Connacht throw away 21-0 Challenge Cup lead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/ospreys\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ospreys<\/a> completed a stunning fightback to overturn a 21-0 deficit at Brewery Field and beat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/connacht\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Connacht<\/a> 24-21 in their opening European <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/challenge-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Challenge Cup<\/a> pool match.<\/p>\n<p>Wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/iestyn-hopkins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Iestyn Hopkins<\/a> went over for the game\u2019s decisive try with six minutes remaining, soon after Connacht fly-half <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/sean-naughton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sean Naughton<\/a> had missed a crucial penalty for the visitors against their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/united-rugby-championship\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">United Rugby Championship<\/a> rivals.<\/p>\n<p>Connacht took full advantage as Ospreys pair <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/james-ratti\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Ratti<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/garyn-phillips\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/finlay-bealham\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Finlay Bealham<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/sean-jansen\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sean Jansen<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/jack-aungier\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jack Aungier<\/a>, all converted by Naughton.<\/p>\n<p>Ospreys back-rower <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/harri-deaves\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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<p>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<p>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&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-304214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}