Indifferent display but victory sees Connacht climb up table

Date Published: {J}

Connacht 31

Treviso 25

Rob Murphy

Eric Elwood’s men march on. A fifth victory from six games and back-to-back crunch ties with bottom side Aironi to come. All is well, but you wouldn’t think it from the faces of the Connacht players as they trudged off the Sportsground pitch on Friday night.

Connacht had watched a 19 point lead disintegrate in the closing quarter and were hanging on a little. They had missed out on a bonus point which had seemed very likely on 54 minutes, when Brian Tuohy crossed over for the third try, and had made far too many errors throughout.

Yet, the four points were still hugely welcome as the side bounced back from last week’s loss in Wales and leapfrogged both Treviso and Glasgow in the table to jump up to the dizzy heights of eighth in the Magners League. The Dragons sit three points ahead of them in the table (admittedly with a game in hand) and are very much the next target.

It might not be the sexiest of goals, it hardly rivals the other three provinces who all have a shot at both European and Celtic League silverware but were Connacht to finish in the top eight and possibly even seventh, it would represent a huge tangible progress and a genuine milestone after the best part of nine Magners League seasons at the bottom of the table.

They started brilliantly on Friday night, building up an early 18 point lead, allowed Treviso back in and then came again either side of the break to go 19 clear before once again easing off the gas.

That’s why key players looked furious at full time and Elwood admitted afterwards that it was a fairly quiet dressing room. Perhaps it’s no harm, as an improving Aironi arrive next Friday and they will need to be better.

The start was superb with Troy Nathan scoring first after a swift move involving a sharp pass from Ian Keatley to beat the rush defence and some nice footwork from Brian Tuohy before the in-form winger found his centre on the inside to score behind the posts.

The second try came after a Keatley penalty and was scored by Frank Murphy who was alive with energy and determination in the opening half underlining his recent resurgence in form. Jamie Hagen played a rampaging part in that try, Keatley’s conversion drifted just wide, but he added a penalty soon after and the lead was 18.

Connacht were in total control at that point although the Treviso set piece was proving solid and the counter attacking of Joe Maddock and, in particular, Brendan Williams was proving a threat helped in a way by Connacht’s determination to kick the ball back to them time and again.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.