O’Brien leaves injury woes behind with a dream return

Zebre 12

Connacht 47

THE final outcome might come served with a pinch of salt, but the ingredients were fresh and uplifting in Parma on Sunday afternoon. The result was fairly straightforward. After a shaky start, Connacht got to grips with the contest, eased ahead and then pounced for two crucial tries either side of half time that killed the tie as a contest. The frills and thrills weren’t needed but even in a routine win, the storylines were plentiful.

The blue skies that greeted the team as they awoke on Sunday morning must have been a welcome relief. A week on from the howling wind and rain during the Scarlets defeat, this was a rare opportunity to play some rugby in perfect conditions. There’s no doubting at this point that Andy Friend’s side fare better in such an environment and the events of the day underlined as much.

Yet for the first few minutes, there were reasons for concern. Within 80 seconds of kick off, Connacht were under the cosh. A dropped restart gave the hosts a platform with a scrum in the visitors 22 and the centre combination of Giulio Bisegni and Tommaso Boni combined brilliantly for the latter to score the game’s first try. Time for panic? Not at all. Connacht were clued in from that point on and barely put a foot wrong.

While the core story of the game itself is a simple one, there were a multitude of talking points afterwards, Sean O’Brien was the standout one, the Galwegian scoring a try on his return after two years in injury rehab. Young players making a mark was another one, Colm Reilly the stand out man in that regard. Another red card for Abraham Papali’i that will provide plenty of headaches this week and there was an untimely injury to the in-form Tom Farrell towards the end too.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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