A frustrating second half performance saw Edinburgh fail to claim another scalp after last week's win against Ospreys, as they fell to defeat to Connacht on a rain-lashed night in Galway.
The side from the Scottish capital were more than a match for their lively hosts in the opening period, and looked to be heading for a promising half-time lead courtesy of excellent tries from Scott Newlands and James King.
A frustrating second half performance saw Edinburgh fail to claim another scalp after last week's win against Ospreys, as they fell to defeat to Connacht on a rain-lashed night in Galway.
The side from the Scottish capital were more than a match for their lively hosts in the opening period, and looked to be heading for a promising half-time lead courtesy of excellent tries from Scott Newlands and James King.
But an ominous double concession immediately prior to the interval put the pressure back on Edinburgh, whose set piece failed to fire following the restart, leading to a shortage of quality possession as they tried to get back into things.
Interim head coach Nick Scrivener said: "There's a hugely disappointed group of players and coaches in that dressing room, because we know we've let ourselves down with that performance and result.
"We showed once again that we've got a lot of ability in attack, but we didn't give ourselves a foothold in that second half because our scrum and lineout just weren't up to scratch. The conditions didn't help us in that regard, but we can't look to that as an excuse.
"As a club, we have to set ourselves standards, and that display, overall, wasn't good enough, particularly on the back of what was a fantastic performance and result against Ospreys."
Edinburgh's next fixture sees a first-ever Murrayfield meeting with Italian cracks Aironi on Friday 15 April (kick-off 7.50pm).
Scrivener's team made a poor start to the Galway game, conceding a try with barely 30 seconds on the clock. Connacht full-back Gavin Duffy was allowed to charge deep into enemy territory before playing in winger Fionn Carr, who drew the cover and ceded to the marauding Ray Ofisa.
A fine Mike Blair tackle took down the big No.8, but he managed to offload to Carr who smuggled himself across the line. While there was no conversion, this opening was far from ideal from an Edinburgh perspective.
The visitors quickly got themselves downfield and won a penalty when Connacht failed to roll away. Facing the usual stiff interference from the wind, Greig Laidlaw held his nerve to send the ball between the sticks.
It was a gusty old night on the west coast of Ireland, and Edinburgh soon experienced one or two struggles under the high ball. There were further anxious moments as Connacht got the drive on with a punishing maul, and inched themselves to within touching distance of the Edinburgh line.
Heroic defence from the away side kept the Irish forwards at bay, and the siege was finally lifted when Mike Blair was taken out at the side of a ruck,
As with most of the opening quarter, the hosts were looking the more likely to produce with ball in hand. Another flowing move had the dynamic Ofisa making ground unchecked again, but as the back-rower looked to put a finishing touch to the play, King flung out a desperate hand and effected a timely ankle tap.
The Scots seemed to draw encouragement from having seen off this dangerous attack, and proceeded to put together their best spell of the match. Patient recycling saw them advance steadily up the middle of the field, before the livewire Nick De Luca offloaded sweetly to the onrushing Blair.
The scrum-half spotted Newlands in space out right, and flung a marvellously speculative pass in the openside's direction. Newlands showed clarity of thought and execution to hunch his shoulders and immediately fire for the right-hand corner, where he got the ball down despite the best efforts of the last two Connacht defenders.
Laidlaw, fresh from his unblemished efforts from the tee against Ospreys, stepped up to land a brilliant conversion from out on the touchline, and soon had the opportunity to notch a further two-pointer as Edinburgh continued to effect a dramatic turnaround on the match with another score.
After the meticulous groundwork of the first try, this was a short, sharp first-phase affair, but no less impressive for it. King, who celebrated his 25th birthday on Thursday, stepped the first man before launching a quickfire run to the line, where he had to see off another two assailants before getting the ball down.
In between these two magnificent Edinburgh scores, Keatley landed a penalty, reminding us that Connacht were still very much in the match,
This point was further underlined in the last couple of minutes before the interval, Connacht grabbing the initiative once more with two dramatic scores. The first was a penalty try, awarded for an apparent early De Luca tackle on Carr as the wideman prepared to score. The Edinburgh outside centre was sin-binned for his trouble.
Carr then surged over for a touchdown of his own after Connacht loaded the right flank and took advantage of some lax away defending. An end-to-end first 40 minutes concluded with the home side five points to the good.
HALF-TIME: CONNACHT 22 EDINBURGH 17
Edinburgh immediately sought to regain the impetus once the interval was out of the way, and narrowed the gap to two points with a Laidlaw penalty awarded for Connacht not releasing.
The home side came again, though, scrum-half Frank Murphy making a searing break that looked for all the world like it would prompt a score, only for a careless knock-on to allow the Scots to breathe afresh.
The game was a tense affair in the third quarter, Connacht probing for further openings and Edinburgh seeking to match their tempo.
The visitors lost captain Andrew Kelly to a blood injury for a time, Alun Walker temporarily replacing him at hooker, and Roddy Grant also emerged from the bench with Fraser McKenzie withdrawn. Grant went to his favoured openside berth, with Newlands reverting to blindside.
Connacht secured a bonus-point score as we prepared to enter the final quarter. A spell of intense pressure that examined all the links in Edinburgh's defensive chain ended with Keatley sending through a cute little grubber that found full-back Gavin Duffy haring up attentively to dot down in the corner and stretch the hosts' lead to seven points.
An instant reaction was demanded from the Scots, and they duly delivered in the shape of another Laidlaw penalty won when Connacht killed the ball at the ruck to blunt a promising Edinburgh attack.
The visitors strove to obtain sufficient possession to hunt down that potentially decisive score in the closing stages, but, one dash up the touchline from Tim Visser aside, couldn't lay their hands on the ball for long enough.
Edinburgh: 15 J Thompson; 14 S Webster, 13 N De Luca, 12 J King, 11 T Visser; 10 G Laidlaw, 9 M Blair; 1 K Traynor, 2 A Kelly (captain), 3 G Cross, 4 S MacLeod, 5 E Lozada, 6 F McKenzie, 7 S Newlands, 8 D Denton
Substitutes: 16 A Walker, 17 R Hislop, 18 L Niven, 19 S Turnbull, 20 R Grant, 21 D Blair, 22 T Brown, 23 L Jones
Connacht: 15 G Duffy; 14 B Tuohy, 13 T Nathan, 12 K Matthews, 11 F Carr; 10 I Keatley, 9 F Murphy; 1 R Loughney, 2 S Cronin, 3 J Hagan, 4 M McCarthy, 5 B Upton, 6 A Browne, 7 J O’Connor, 8 R Ofisa
Substitutes: 16 A Flavin, 17 B Wilkinson, 18 R Ah You, 19 M McComish, 20 J Muldoon, 21 M Dolan 22 E Griffin, 23 S Monahan
Ref: C Damasco (FIR)
