Connacht come to the Boyle for bonus point win

Connacht 31

Benetton 14

Paul Boyle is breaking out. Friday’s bonus point win over a struggling Benetton side wasn’t a vintage Connacht display, but the big headline was the 23-years-old from Wexford who captained the province for the first time and marked the occasion with a hat-trick of tries and a dominant display at the back of the scrum.

Boyle has made 45 appearances since making his debut against Munster in January 2017. This wasn’t his first time captaining a side, he has done that with Gorey RFC and the Irish U-20s; nor was it some sort of surprising performance – he’s been churning these high level displays out all season – but it was a milestone thanks to the tries, and it certainly caught the headlines.

Connacht weren’t great here, but they simply didn’t have to be as they were up against an honest and lively opponent lacking the kind of quality in the forwards that they needed to compete for the win. Conditions were key to the stop-start nature of the contest, but Andy Friend will have been content with the five tries and the maximum return in terms of league points.

In a disrupted campaign, Connacht have won four and lost two. They sit comfortably in second place in the standings but they are well back of unbeaten Munster. That’ll do for now with Champions Cup action on the menu for the next two weeks. This was always going to be an evening for hard graft and patience and in that sense, Boyle really was the perfect choice for the captaincy.

He took the mantle because Jarred Butler wasn’t meant to start. Sean O’Brien was a late withdrawal with a hamstring injury, yet even though Butler – drafted in to replace O’Brien – is the club captain, he left the squad to follow the plan that was in place and Boyle got the experience of leading the side through the kind of test that had tripped them up two weeks previously, when the Scarlets won in the College Road rain.

Connacht secured a bonus point in the first-half with the wind at their back but it was a step-by-step process and by no means a procession. Boyle got the first try, charging over from close range after sustained attacks; and Peter Sullivan had Connacht further ahead on 23 minutes, the winger emerging from a driving maul with the ball after the backs had joined in to help it over the line. That will pad the stats nicely for the Bray native.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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