Connacht warm to their task in freezing conditions

Enisei-STM 14

Connacht 31

There will quite likely never be another European club rugby game like the one that took place in Krasnoyarsk last Saturday afternoon. The Siberian city, a couple of hundred miles directly north of western China, is an outpost like no other. Two of Russia’s best rugby clubs reside there and Connacht faced one of them in sub zero temperatures at the weekend.

In brief, Connacht won and secured a bonus point despite the -20°C temperatures in the late afternoon. They led 6-0 at half-time thanks to the accurate kicking of new signing at out-half, AJ MacGinty, after a cagey and understandably error-strewn first half, but produced a second half as good as anything in the Pat Lam era to notch four excellent tries and emerge from this outlandish test with the maximum points.

The young Connacht side were slowly beginning to figure out ways of coping with the biting cold and the tenacious but technically-limited opposition. Early in the second half the westerners got the first try from ball won against the head in the scrum with George Naoupu popping up at the base, passing to Bundee Aki who released Niyi Adeolokun in the corner for the first try and a 14-0 lead at that point.

The second try seemed to be the match clincher and was certainly the score of the game, sparked by an excellent offload from Naoupu in his own 22 that released Aki on a huge break from one 22 to the other. The superb Ultan Dillane took it on a few extra metres before John Muldoon finished in the corner on the next phase.

Young full-back Darragh Leader got try number three and while Enisei responded with their first try much to the delight of the small but vociferous home crowd, the bonus point was wrapped up with six minutes to go.

MacGinty made it with a clever cross-kick for Rory Parata to rise high and finish off try number four. The late Enisei try didn’t dampen the sense of achievement from Connacht after a maximum return from a huge challenge.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.