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AS IT HAPPENED

As it happened: Aironi v Connacht

Revisit our minute-by-minute coverage as Connacht took on the Italians.

Send us your thoughts and comments on this evening’s action. E-mail  paul@thescore.ie, tweet us@thescore_iefind us on Facebook, or leave a comment below.

Aironi 20-6  Connacht (FT)

Good afternoon, and welcome to our live coverage of Aironi against Connacht.

And we’re underway…

Here are the teams:

Aironi: Andrea Masi; Giulio Toniolatti, Roberto Quartaroli, Gabriel Pizarro, Sinoti Sinoti; Luciano Orquera, Tyson Keats; Alberto De Marchi, Roberto Santamaria, Fabio Staibano; Joshua Furno, Marco Bortolami, Nicola Cattina; Simone Favaro, Josh Sole

Replacements: Tommaso D’Apice, Salvatore Perugini, Lorenzo Romano, Quintin Geldenhuys, Mauro Bergamasco, Tito Tebaldi, Naas Olivier, Alberto Benettin

Connacht: Gavin Duffy (capt); Fetu’u Vainikolo, Kyle Tonetti, Dave McSharry, Tiernan O’Halloran; Matthew Jarvis, Frank Murphy; Brett Wilkinson, Adrian Flavin, Dylan Rogers; Michael Swift, Mike McCarthy; Mick Kearney, John Muldoon, George Naoupu

Replacements: Ethienne Reynecke, Denis Buckley, Stewart Maguire, Eoin McKeon, Ray Ofisa, Paul O’Donohoe, Niall O’Connor, Henry Fa’afili

3-0 TO AIRONI!

Luciano Orquera gives a Aironi an early lead with a well-struck penalty from distance. Bad start for Connacht.

Connacht became the first-ever side to lose in this competition to Aironi last year. Hopefully they can avoid a similar fate on this occasion.

6-0 to AIRONI! Orquera makes no mistake with a straightforward penalty in front of the posts. Connacht have yet to turn up.

MISSED PENALTY FROM JARVIS! At the moment, Connacht seem short of confidence and are a pale shadow of the side that pushed Leinster so close last week.

9-0 to AIRONI! Orquera continues his excellent kicking record with another relatively easy penalty in front of the posts, to put the Italians into a commanding lead.

O’Halloran has just dropped the ball clumsily, ending what was a promising-looking Connacht attack. There are very few positives to take from this game for Eric Elwood’s men thus far.

For some reason this song was playing before kick off:

Not sure why.

It’s been a scrappy game so far. Neither side has played especially well – Aironi have just been that bit more clinical when opportunities have arisen.

Poor again from Connacht. O’Halloran’s pass is intercepted just as they had begun to launch a sustained attack in the Aironi 22 for the first time in this half.

This hasn’t been a game for the purists. It’s been very stop-start, with both sides barely threatening to score a try.

YELLOW CARD FOR DYLAN ROGERS!

Connacht probably thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, but with Aironi threatening to score the game’s first try, Rogers is penalised and sent to the sin bin – seemingly for persistent infringements.

HALF TIME: AIRONI 9-0 CONNACHT

So a huge improvement is needed in the second half if Connacht are to avoid a second defeat to Aironi in the space of the year. The Italians, meanwhile, will be pleased at the manner in which they have stopped Connacht playing with any rhythm, while taking their opportunities well at the other end of the field.

The fact that the sum total of Connacht’s clear-cut chances amounts to one missed penalty against arguably the worst team in the competition tells you everything you need to know about their performance so far.

And we’re back…

TRY FOR AIRONI!

14-0 Sinoti Sinoti wriggles through two poor attempted tackles and grounds the ball for the first try of the game. Woeful defending from Connacht, who have picked up where they left off in the first half. Orquera’s conversion attempt hits the post.

17-0: Another consummately taken penalty from Orquera. This is beginning to look embarrassing.

17-3: Jarvis finally puts some points on the board and Connacht are back to 15 men. The comeback is on (possibly).

20-3: That man Orquera continues his impressive record, as Connacht predictably concede yet another penalty just after having registered their first points of the game.

YELLOW CARD! Fabio Staibano is penalised for throwing a punch. Will that prove to be a lifeline for Connacht?

It’s now or never for Connacht. They have a scrum five metres from the opposition try line.

The referee rules against a Connacht try after the video referee judges that Vainikolo didn’t ground the ball. Great defending from Sinoti Sinoti to stop him, it must be said.

Connacht are practically camped on the Aironi try line now.

20-6: O’Connor kicks a successful penalty in front of the posts, but Connacht will be disappointed not to have gotten all seven points from that attack. And with just over ten minutes remaining, a win for Connacht looks highly unlikely.

FULL TIME: AIRONI 20-6 CONNACHT

So a fairly dreadful performance from Connacht in what was, in truth, a pretty poor game.

Aironi, in contrast, will be delighted with a performance in which they were rewarded with a rare win. Moreover, their success in managing to go an entire game without conceding a try will also raise a few eyebrows and those who insist that Italian rugby continues to progress will also point to this performance as evidence of their assertion.

Right that’s it from me for now. Don’t worry though, as we’ll back to liveblog the Leinster and Munster games very shortly.

Read: Liveblog: FA Cup 3 o’clocks>

Read: Not playing abroad ‘a regret’ for Paul O’Connell>

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