Mixed bag from Connacht in pulling off a bonus point win

Connacht 36

Cardiff Blues 31

THE dust has well settled from Saturday’s bonus point home win over the Cardiff Blues and the positive vibes have certainly lingered longer. It was a mixed bag of a game at a sunny Sportsground, but the bare bones don’t read too badly for Pat Lam and his crew.

Connacht scored five tries to secure just a fourth win in 22 attempts against their bogey side from the Welsh capital. In doing so the westerners moved into fourth place in the table just one point behind the three joint leaders, Llanelli, Munster and Edinburgh. That’s a solid start.

The frustrations remain, however. The Glasgow defeat hasn’t yet been etched from the mind, the Scottish side were very much there for the taking and in this game in Galway on Saturday, right at the very end they conceded a fourth try to the Blues which secured the visitors two bonus points from the game.

It made for a very anti-climactic conclusion as everyone at College Road knew that such a score could be crucial come the end of the season. The Blues will be one of Connacht’s main rivals for a top six spot this year.

It bares repeating ad nauseum that this is the time for Connacht to make hay. The fixtures have fallen well for them, lots of home games and games against last year’s bottom six during a World Cup period where only a handful of squads aren’t decimated.

The Irish provinces, Glasgow, the Ospreys and the Italian sides are worst affected, but teams like Cardiff are not exactly at full strength. Eight players were unavailable at the weekend. Gethin Jenkins, Sam Warburton, Lloyd Williams, Cory Allen, Alex Cuthbert (all Wales), Rey Lee-Lo (Samoa); Cameron Dolan and Blaine Scully (both USA)

At the start, the hosts seemed at ease. Piling on the pressure and pinning the Blues back, but this was a game with plenty of momentum swings. The first try came from a loose Tom McCartney pass on the Cardiff 22 that went straight to an alert Aled Summerhill who ran the length of the field.

Connacht responded well and went on a run of 19 points in the next 20 minutes to take complete control of the game. Kieran Marmion darted through a huge hole at the breakdown ten metres out for an easy score. Nepia Fox Matamua scored at the back of a maul and Danie Poolman brilliantly finished off a flowing move in the corner after some great work from Bundee Aki and Rory Parata.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.