Connacht scrape home

Date Published: 21-Jan-2013

Dara Bradley

CONNACHT scraped a win against Zebre at the Sportsground on Friday night signing-off on a memorable Heineken Cup campaign with a third victory in pool three, two more than last year’s inaugural season in the competition.

It’s not often winning teams are given a tongue-lashing by their head coach but Eric Elwood was right to be angry after the Westerners blew a 19-6 lead, allowed the Italian minnows back into a game that should have been wrapped up, and with just over ten minutes to go, were on the verge of an embarrassing defeat.

At times it was excruciatingly frustrating for the home supporters in the crowd of 5,803. Zebre had chipped away at Connacht’s advantage, and incredibly hit the front, 20-19, with just over 10 minutes remaining, before the home side woke up again and dug deep to eventually triumph thanks to a penalty and drop goal from out-half Dan Parks, who scored 20 points.

It was the sort of game Connacht should have won handily, and with a 13 points lead, the province were in a position to kick on and challenge for a try-bonus point (that’s what the good teams would have done) but alarmingly they almost blew it. Connacht will be relieved that Parks spared their blushes in the final game of the Heineken Cup.

Whether Connacht will be back in the top flight of the competition next year depends, once again, on their cousins in the other three provinces.

If any of the other three Irish provinces win the Amlin Challenge Cup or the Heineken Cup, then Connacht will automatically qualify for next year’s Heineken Cup.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.