CONNACHT 36
STADE FRANCAIS 9
Garry Doyle at the Sportsground
THIS WAS SOME win, not just in terms of the scoreline, more to do with a different number.
When news reached us just an hour before kick-off that Finlay Bealham was joining Denis Buckley, Gavin Thornbury, Paul Boyle, Bundee Aki, Tom Farrell, Tom Daly, and Mack Hansen on the absentee list, you wondered how Connacht would cope.
Well, we got a fairly comprehensive answer.
All season we’ve heard about Connacht’s lack of depth. This, more than anything else, was a test of it. Eight key absentees, Bealham the final addition to that list, left them facing an opponent who looked better on paper than they appeared in the flesh.
Still, Connacht had a job to do. The final score suggests it was easy but on 70 minutes there were just ten points between them, the Connacht scrum was creaking, legs were tiring. Ten minutes later, Connacht had another three tries to their name, the crowd were singing Jingle Bells and the idea of a place in the last 16 didn’t seem so fanciful.
You wouldn’t have been so confident about making that kind of statement in the first quarter when a couple of scrum penalties went Stade’s way – Nicolas Sanchez taking advantage of each opportunity to get the scoreboard ticking over for the Parisians.
Other issues came and went. There were a few too many handling errors from Connacht, as well as a messy enough kicking game, Jack Carty taking half-an-hour or so to get into any sort of decent rhythm, while a couple of penalties were shipped at the breakdown.
On top of all this, Connacht weren’t able to get into their usual flow, the weather gods and Stade having something to say about that. And yet despite all these hardships, it was the home side who took a 19-6 lead into the break, Carty the contributor to two of those tries with his swift hands and vision, John Porch and Alex Wootton the grateful recipients.
The other one went Caolin Blade’s way, a move that stemmed – as nearly all Connacht’s best plays did – from their line-out which was brilliant all day, not just because of the accuracy of Shane Delahunt’s throws but also due to the cleverness of Oisin Dowling, Cian Prendergast and Niall Murray’s movement.
You also have to credit Carty’s captaincy. Twice he had kickable opportunities to consider but rather than selfishly massage his ego with some easy points next to his name, he backed his pack to do their job in the corner.
They did. While Stade’s maul defence was excellent, the fact the Delahunt/Murray/Dowling/Prendergast line-out machine was operating so efficiently meant that possession was readily secured.
It then became a case of how Connacht would use it. Initially that answer wasn’t terribly well but on their third visit to the Stade 22, they finally got across the line, Prendergast’s take from Delahunt’s throw giving them the platform, Shayne Bolton’s carry getting them near the line, Blade’s opportunism allowing them get across it. Eleven minutes gone, Connacht ahead 7-0.
That lead was soon cut – Matthew Burke feeling the heat of Champions Cup rugby – as his mistake led to a Stade penalty in front of the posts, easy pickings for someone like Sanchez.
At that precise moment, Connacht needed stability. Instead Carty kicked his restart out on the full; another scrum led to another Stade penalty, this one from half-way which Sanchez converted, and in a blink of an eye that seven-point lead was reduced to one.
As the game struggled to find a pattern, Connacht’s policy of going for tries rather than an easy three points seemed risky. Yet it paid off, in spite of a handling error from Jarrad Butler near the Stade line, as from the subsequent scrum, Robertson-McCoy’s fine work left Sanchez with little time to execute his clearance.
He made a mess of it. Line-out, Connacht. This time their maul made a bit of progress but not as much yardage as Blade who tidied up a messy situation to get Connacht close to the Stade line. Butler got them closer, then Carty had the wherewithal to loop a spinning pass wide to his left where Porch was waiting to run it in. 12-6, Connacht.
Their third try, just before half-time, was similar – only this time Carty’s pass went wide right rather than left, Wootton calmly waiting to get the touch down as the ball bounced horribly. Again the line out was their source, the movement of the Murray and Dowling this time the key to the score. Carty converted; Connacht had a 19-6 half-time lead and you knew the second-half had the potential to be brilliant.
It wasn’t quite that but it was certainly tense, not least when Stade ran at the Connacht defence in the third quarter, not least when Sanchez kicked a third penalty and when the scrum came under increasing pressure.
But they held on. Niall Murray was immense, Cian Prendergast just as good. Finally, nine minutes from time, relief came Connacht’s way, Stade full-back Telusa Veainu making a mess of a bouncing ball. Before you knew it, Kieran Marmion, Wootton and Carty were setting Eoghan Masterson clear. That score finished Stade off.
A beaten team, they caved in. Replacement Diarmuid Kilgallen got across, after a series of pick-and-goes. Lastly, a minute remaining, Prendergast got the try his performance deserved and the crowd broke into a chorus of the Fields of Athenry. There and then, you knew it was over. It just took the final whistle to confirm it.
Connacht scorers
Tries: Blade, Porch, Wootton, E Masterson, Kilgallen, C Prendergast
Conversions: Carty (3/4) Fitzgerald (0/2)
Penalties:
Stade scorers
Tries:
Conversions:
Penalties: Sanchez (3/3)
Connacht
Oran McNulty; Alex Wootton, Shayne Bolton (rep: Diarmuid Kilgallen ’60), Sammy Arnold, John Porch; Jack Carty (rep: Conor Fitzgerald ‘71), Caolin Blade (rep: Kieran Marmion ‘65); Matthew Burke (rep: Jordan Duggan ’27), Shane Delahunt (rep: Dave Heffernan ‘45), Dominic Robertson-McCoy (rep: Jack Aungier ‘45); Oisin Dowling (rep: Eoghan Masterson ’55), Niall Murray (rep: Sean Masterson ’71), Cian Prendergast, Conor Oliver, Jarrad Butler
Stade Francais
Telusa Veainu; Paul Champ, Alex Arrate (rep: Gauthier Wolf ’75), Leo Barre, Lester Etien (Adrien Lapegue ’71); Nicolas Sanchez, James Hall (rep: William Percillier ’65); Quentin Bethune (rep: Moses Alo Emile ‘53), Tolu Latu (rep: Lucas Da Silva ‘59), Nemo Roelofse (rep: Paul Alo Emile ‘60); Mathieu De Giovanni, Juan Johan Van Der Mescht (rep: Paul Gabrillagues ’46-56); Marcos Kremer (rep: Paul Gabrillagues ’63), Charlie Francoz, Tala Gray (rep: Loic Godener ’59)
Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU)
Attendance: 5,277