Jack Carty celebrated his Ireland call-up with a late match-winning intercept try as Connacht outlasted Bordeaux-Bègles in an eight-try shootout at Stade Chaban-Delmas.
Connacht were staring at elimination from the European Challenge Cup when Bordeaux broke into a 27-19 lead, but Matt Healy’s second try of the game and the crucial intercept effort from Jack Carty, who was part of an influential bench, sent them through to the quarter-finals.
Quinn Roux marked his first match as Connacht captain with a first half try, the visitors just 20-19 behind at the break with Healy and Tiernan O’Halloran also crossing the whitewash. Baptiste Serin’s 48th-minute score put their qualification in serious doubt, only for Healy to bag the bonus point and Carty to snatch the win from the jaws of defeat.
The province’s 10th Challenge Cup quarter-final will see them return to Salford to play pool rivals Sale Sharks on March 29/30/31. Connacht and Sale finished level on 22 points at the top of Pool 3, with the head-to-head record keeping Sharks at the summit and giving them home advantage over sixth seeds Connacht.
Andy Friend’s side took advantage of Serin’s early sin-binning to release winger Healy for a ninth-minute opener. Debutant scrum half Stephen Kerins was at the heart of a pacy move off a lineout maul just inside the Bordeaux 22, and following some neat passing and decoy running across the line, Darragh Leader sent Healy stepping inside Ulupano Seuteni and over in the left corner despite Seta Tamanivalu’s last-ditch tackle.
Australian stand-off David Horwitz missed the conversion but added the extras to Roux’s 18th-minute score, which came in response to a Lucas Meret penalty. Strong carries from Bundee Aki and Peter McCabe had the Bordeaux defence back-pedalling and Roux, well-supported by Finlay Bealham, was able to power through Mariano Galarza’s attempted tackle and take three more defenders with him over the line.
However, the momentum swung behind Bordeaux approaching the half hour mark as Connacht were made to pay for a lost lineout. Armed with a penalty advantage right in front of the visitors’ posts, France scrum half Serin fed lively replacement Afa Amosa who proved unstoppable from a few metres out.
The try was converted by Meret who also sent over a booming 26th-minute penalty for a 13-12 lead, and the Top 14 club, who were out of the running for the tournament’s quarter-final stage, held onto their one-point advantage up to half-time.
Despite Kerins and Horwitz combining to send Healy through a midfield gap to set up O’Halloran’s 34th-minute try under the posts, Bordeaux replacement prop Jefferson Poirot caught the Connacht defence cold as he sprung straight through from a ruck for the first half’s final try, converted by Meret.
20-19 became 27-19 within ten minutes of the restart, Bordeaux coming out firing as a rare fumble between centres Aki and Tom Farrell resulted in Cameron Woki countering brilliantly from halfway and he fed the supporting Serin to finish off to the left of the posts. Meret tagged on the extras but that proved to be the hosts’ final score of this entertaining encounter.
Farrell went close to responding but was held up past the try-line, with all four Connacht backs named in Ireland’s Six Nations squad now on the pitch – Farrell, Aki and Carty and Caolin Blade who were both sprung from the bench. Three of them were involved in the build-up to Healy’s 70th-minute try which sparked a strong finish from Friend’s charges.
Aki’s nicely-timed pass released Farrell up to halfway, he linked with Blade who evaded a tackle and fed Dominic Robertson-McCoy who cleverly drew in a defender before passing for Healy to get away from Meret and score from 15 metres out.
Carty converted to make it a one-point game again, and although time was not on their side, the Athlone man emerged as Connacht’s match winner. He expertly picked off Meret’s high pass on Bordeaux’s 10-metre line and scampered clear to run in the decisive try, three minutes from the end.
Giving his reaction afterwards, Connacht boss Friend said: “It was a great finish for us, but we put ourselves under a lot of pressure and that’s an area of concern. We’ve talked about it – our three big rocks. One is our tempo and we are playing with tempo. Our physicality, and I was really impressed with our tackles, our double hits, the way we are carrying.
“But out last big rock is our accuracy, and that is the area where we are really letting ourselves down at the moment. As we come down to these really important games, we’ve got to make sure we are more accurate, but too many times we released pressure on the opposition through simple errors.
“I thought Quinn Roux was outstanding, first time as skipper and he scores a try. He never stopped working. We are yet to play our best game of rugby and our errors are keeping the opposition in games but we showed a lot of character and belief again and managed to get the win and the bonus point.
“To win in France is a great achievement, we’ve done it and we have a quarter-final to look forward to now against Sale. We know what’s coming in Sale, and at the appropriate time we will turn our energy and focus to that, but it’s great to know we are in a quarter-final now. Between now and then we have some huge PRO14 games to concentrate on, starting next weekend in Cardiff.”
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