Niyi Adeolokun’s 74th-minute try put the seal on Connacht’s rousing 33-20 GUINNESS PRO14 win over the Scarlets at the Sportsground, with Bundee Aki and 18-point out-half Jack Carty starring for the winners.
The westerners held the edge at the end of a very entertaining first half, leading 20-13 thanks to Tom Farrell and Cian Kelleher tries and Jack Carty’s accuracy with the boot. Johnny McNicholl added a try to Leigh Halfpenny’s two penalties for the visitors.
Following a scrappy third quarter, the excellent Carty knocked over penalties after 62 and 69 minutes, and although Tom Prydie’s seven-pointer put last season’s runners-up right back in the hunt, Niyi Adeolokun’s effort from a Caolin Blade turnover earned Connacht’s first victory in four meetings with the Llanelli side.
Man-of-the-match Bundee Aki was in barnstorming form right from the off, gaining big yards on his first home start of the season. Connacht hit the front in the fourth minute when Aki’s sidestep and powerful hand-off unlocked the defence and sent his centre partner Farrell in under the posts.
An attritional opening spell saw locks Steve Cummins and Gavin Thornbury both withdrawn, while Halfpenny punished a Denis Buckley scrum infringement with the Scarlets’ first points. Carty returned the favour in the 16th minute before Halfpenny closed the gap to 10-6, with Aki unfortunate to go unrewarded for his turnover from a tackle.
As the pace of both attacks increased, Kelleher burst onto Matt Healy’s short pass to finish crisply in the 25th minute, but again the Scarlets bounced back impressively. Just three minutes later they caught Connacht for numbers on the left and McNicholl threw a dummy to cut past Kelleher on the inside and Halfpenny’s conversion restored the four-point margin.
Ed Kennedy’s deliberate knock-on allowed Carty to make it 20-13 just before the break, with an obstruction call foiling a Tiernan O’Halloran break and a promising Scarlets move was spoiled by Kieran Marmion’s interception. The Scarlets thwarted an advancing Connacht maul on the resumption, and flanker Kennedy broke up the hosts’ momentum with a well-won breakdown penalty.
A tight TMO call favoured the Welsh region when Kelleher was deemed to have taken out McNicholl as the pair contested a Carty cross-field kick. Marmion’s pacy sniping around the fringes, coupled with a strong carry from Sean O’Brien, set up Carty’s third successful penalty, early in the final quarter.
The Athlone man added his fourth after Werner Kruger infringed at a scrum, but having been starved of possession, the Scarlets’ attack lit up once more. Wyn Jones broke onto Jake Ball’s offload and winger Prydie did likewise to score from Hadleigh Parkes’ classy assist.
Rhys Patchell converted to leave this fourth round contest delicately poised at 26-20 – only for Connacht’s replacement scrum half Blade to pinch a ruck ball, setting up O’Brien to thunder past the 10-metre line and pass for Adeolokun to claim the clinching try.
Giving his reaction after Connacht’s second home win of the campaign, head coach Andy Friend said: “I said to the boys in the shed afterwards, ‘enjoy that’. You’ve got to enjoy it when you knock off big sides like that. We will enjoy it, we’ll temper that knowing we have Leinster next weekend and that’s our next focus.
“Really proud of the boys, especially the way they held their nerve in the last eight minutes when they came back within six points. They’re the sort of moments which tell you whether the team is growing or the team’s stagnant. For me, we grew. It’s early doors in the season, but they showed that fortitude to stick with a plan and get the last try.”
He acknowledged: “Our theme this week was, ‘unrelenting’. Bundee was unrelenting in the way he continued to put the opposition under pressure with and without the football. That gives the rest of the boys massive confidence.
“The other thing is that he puts the fear of god in the opposition. He’s a baller that boy. I reckon their 10 (Rhys Patchell) didn’t want to see another sight of Bundee Aki, which is good. Jack Carty too, his game control was excellent.
“We talked about it after the Zebre game, keeping that ball in front of the forwards. Tonight we did that really well. The amount of times Jack turned them and put them in the corner and we played where we wanted to play. Our game control with our nines and 10s, Tiernan at the back, they did a great job playing in the right areas.”
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