The historic Cardiff Arms Park hosted Connacht on Friday evening and the Cardiff faithful were out in force, with a capacity 8,000 crowd out to see the return of the Blues to their spiritual home.
The home crowd’s raucous welcome was silenced just three minutes into the game. Connacht out-half Niall O’Connor nailed a kick after his forwards forced a penalty at scrum time.
Ben Blair levelled matters and then put the home side into the lead with two kicks of his own before Connacht hit back.
The visiting forwards created quick ball and after Connacht drew the Cardiff defence left and then right, they spread the ball left again for Tiernan O’Halloran to score in the corner.
O’Connor added the difficult touchline conversion and with the Connacht scrum in the ascendancy, the visitors were able to enjoy some regular possession and territory.
However, Scottish referee Andrew McMenemy made a number of decisions that incensed the travelling support and the penalty count against Connacht reached double digits before the end of the first half.
Cardiff full-back Blair was afforded the opportunity to kick two more penalties, handing the hosts a slender 12-0 lead at the break.
Eric Elwood’s men got off to a flying start in the second half and following line breaks from Fetu’u Vainikolo and captain Gavin Duffy, O’Connor had the opportunity to put the westerners back in the lead only for his long range kick to fall inches short of the posts.
Henry Fa’afili was clean through the Cardiff defence only to be brought back for a forward pass as Connacht piled on the pressure but could not capitalise on their greater share of possesion.
Blair stretched the home lead to five points after further ill-discipline from Connacht inside their own half. Prop Sam Hobbs then crashed over for a try when it seemed that Martyn Williams had knocked the ball on in the lead up to the score.
Blair’s successful conversion put 12 points between the sides. Back came Connacht with Duffy linking with O’Halloran on the left wing.
The young winger offloaded to supporting scrum half Paul O’Donohoe who was brought down just yards from the Cardiff line.
Connacht’s best chance of the second half saw a pinpoint pass from O’Donohoe’s replacement David Moore put Duffy free in space. With just the full-back to beat, Duffy’s pass frustratingly did not go to hand and Cardiff were able to clear their lines.
With just minutes left on the clock and Connacht pinned deep in their own 22, Duffy chipped across for O’Halloran to collect. His kick was weighted perfectly and the speedy winger sprinted the length of the pitch.
His offload to Moore was timed perfectly for the replacement scrum half to score his first try for the province in his third appearance.
Matthew Jarvis, another of the replacements, missed the conversion but it was enough to earn Connacht a much deserved losing bonus point.
Connacht will rue the series of scoring opportunities they failed to convert, but a dominant scrum and lineout, as well as some ferocious tacking, will prove some comfort as the focus switches to next weekend’s home game against Glasgow.
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