RUGBY:WHEN YOU know how to win, you know how to win and by extension, when you know how to lose you can almost take it to an art form.

So it was that Connacht played the better rugby, outscored Leinster by two tries to nil yet missed five kicks in total to Isa Nacewa’s haul of five from five, thereby being consigned to a 12th defeat in a row, whereas Leinster made it 13 games unbeaten with a smash-and-grab 15-13 win to maintain their six-point lead in the RaboDirect Pro 12 League.

Looking well-drilled and with a good shape to their attacking game, if a little lacking in cutting edge, Connacht assuredly made much more carries and recycled, put more width and ambition on their game, yet ultimately came up agonisingly short as a drop goal attempt by Miah Nikora, entering the 82nd minute, was shown to have come up just short of the crossbar by the TMO.

Such is the popularity of games over the Christmas holidays and of provincial derbies they can apparently withstand weakened selections, and while Leinster brought little more than a functional defence and territory-based game, the vast majority in the attendance of 6,582 (a League record for the Sportsground) went into the night nursing an acute and all too familiar sense of disappointment.

This included Eric Elwood, who is bearing the brunt of this losing run worse than anyone.

“Obviously it’s another disappointing dressingroom. Leinster are the European champions and we out-scored them two tries to nil. But we couldn’t buy a kick. The kickers don’t need me to tell them. We’ve had a chat downstairs, they know that.

“If one of those kicks go over, it wins you a very important home game and a win against Leinster, the lift we were looking forward to. Unfortunately again, a good performance, a great effort, good crowd participation and a great night but we’ve nothing to show for it. It’s disappointing.”

Initially, in signalling for the use of the TMO, it appeared referee John Lacey had signalled a valid three-pointer, sending some of the record crowd into brief and false delirium, for it would have been an epic win of its kind, and Elwood grimly noted:

“Ironically, if it hadn’t been on TV, John probably would have given it. Because he had his hand up, that’s why we were celebrating. But to be fair to him, that’s why we have the technology and that’s what he did. But if it wasn’t on shagging TV, we probably would have won the game.”

Although Nikora was a little over 30 metres out, Elwood agreed his team might have taken the final play on another few phases before opting for such a difficult kick.

“That’s the composure under pressure, and having that extra bit of patience.”

Nor was he of a mind to take solace from another good performance, citing a missed try opportunity in the first half, and his mood had been further darkened by a slim squad being stretched ever closer to breaking point with injuries to Brian Tuohy (suspected broken leg), Ronan Loughney (shoulder) and Johnny O’Connor (facial injury) as well as a recurrence of Eoin Griffin’s hamstring problems.

Joe Schmidt almost looked like a burglar who had been caught in the act. Referring to Nikora’s “well struck” effort, the Leinster coach noted: “The gust of wind that maybe pushed it back a bit was unlucky for them and I think that would sum up their night when you add that to Harlequins away when they scored two tries to one. They just can’t buy a trick at the moment and I’d sympathise with Eric.”

“I think that was a really resolute (Connacht) performance tonight and it’s disappointing for them that it didn’t come to fruition tonight. But you have to say that’s going to augur well for the games that are upcoming, that the character and the quality that they showed is sufficient for them to move up the table and get some wins on the board.”

While happy with Leinster’s first 50 minutes, Schmidt felt the second-half yellow cards for Isaac Boss and Leo Cullen rattled his team. “I don’t think we controlled the game well after that and that’s our responsibility. We’ve got to be able to cope in that situation and once that happened and we started to get rattled that affected anything we tried to construct.”

That said and done, given the extensive test of his squad’s strength in depth, a Christmas double ensured some festive cheer. “This is a really tough place to come at this time of the year because they are least affected by international camps and the international players getting time off. We always knew this was going to be a bit of a scramble and to scramble out of here with four points, as I say I’m delighted but the way we did it, we’re disappointed with that last 30 minutes.”