Tiernan O'Halloran says execution cost Connacht quarter-final slot
Tiernan O’Halloran says Connacht knew exactly what they had to do to claim a place in the Champions Cup quarter-finals as the clock wound down in Toulouse and that it was simply a case of poor execution that saw them fall short, .
Trailing 19-10 to the hosts who had scored three tries, Connacht needed to prevent a fourth and claim just a penalty or drop goal to pip Toulouse for a place in the knockout stages but they squandered possession time and again in the final quarter.
Their best opportunity came and went with an over-elaborate lineout routine in the Toulouse half in the dying minutes and there was no indication that out-half Jack Carty had sought to position himself for the drop goal that would take them through.
“A few of the key guys sat down with Pat (on Saturday) night and knew the situation and what would happen the last five minutes,” said the full-back. “The big thing was not letting them score another try because if they did we were in big trouble.
“The first focus was on our defensive mentality to keep them out but the other thing was to try and get our opportunity for three points. It didn’t happen for us that time in their 22 but I don’t think we panicked.
“Even if we’d got the three points we would have had to exit again and they might have got another opportunity. That’s just the way it was but there was never a case where we didn’t know what was happening. We were in control of what the situation was, we just didn’t execute it.”
It was a frustrating day for the province who knew they would go through if they claimed a losing bonus point and prevented the Top 14 side from claiming the four-try bonus point as they fell behind early to their hosts.
Centre Gael Ficku scored Toulouse’s first try on the game’s opening drive and Arthur Bonneval added a second before the end of the first quarter to leave the visitors facing an uphill struggle at the Stade Ernest Wallon.
“We knew the task ahead of us coming over here and our focus was to just win the game,” said O’Halloran. “There was no other mentality towards it and that first ten minutes really hurt us. We didn’t match up physically from our kick-off and they went the whole length of the pitch.
“Mentally, that’s tough in the first five minutes and they get a try that quickly. That’s the good thing about the lads here. Everybody fronted up and we clawed back and got to the last play of the game there with a chance still to qualify and we just couldn’t get over the line.”
