Connacht have closed the gap on seventh-placed Cardiff Blues to three points after gaining the bonus point by the hour mark in a 34-19 win away to Benetton Treviso.
Connacht were beaten by Treviso here at Stadio di Monigo last year, so this was an important result for Pat Lam’s men as they gained revenge on the Italians and also kept the pressure on Cardiff (37 points) and Glasgow Warriors (41) in the battle for Champions Cup qualification.
The picture will become clearer after the westerners play their game in hand away to Zebre at the start of April. In the meantime, it is vital that maintain their winning form against the same opponents at the Sportsground next Friday before a crunch March 25 trip to Glasgow.
The province had to be patient during the early stages against Treviso, the scoreboard was blank until the returning Bundee Aki burst into the 22 and was caught with a high tackle. His centre partner Craig Ronaldson sent the penalty through the posts for a 3-0 lead on the quarter hour.
Ronaldson tagged on another three points midway through the half, with Connacht working their way back into the hosts’ 22 on a couple of occasions and full-back Tiernan O’Halloran, on the occasion of his 26th birthday, running a kick back with interest.
It was beginning to be one-way traffic as Ronaldson broke the line and got the visitors back into scoring range. A cross-field kick to Danie Poolman did not work out, but O’Halloran popped up in attack again to run hard and gain plenty of metres.
The pressure told in the 27th minute when scrum half and man-of-the-match Caolin Blade scampered over from close range. Ronaldson converted and try number two followed shortly afterwards, Connacht using the pace of their back-three to cause Kieran Crowley’s side some defensive headaches.
Niyi Adeolokun was next to fly up the wing, he was brought down in the 22 but it was not long before fellow Ireland international Finlay Bealham was able to run in unopposed, collecting Nepia Fox-Matamua’s neat offload to charge over from 30 metres out (with an impressive step off his left along the way). Ronaldson made it four from four with another on-target conversion, putting 20 points between the teams.
However, Connacht allowed Treviso to dictate play approaching half-time. They coughed up successive penalties, allowing the hosts to twice kick to the corner before winger Andrea Buondonno dived over to score out wide on the left.
20-5 is how it stayed up to the interval, although South African winger Poolman had a try ruled out on the 40-minute mark after number 10 Jack Carty was deemed to have knocked on in the build-up.
There were promising signs for Connacht on the resumption, O’Halloran threatening on the counter and flanker Sean O’Brien reaching the 22 on a strong burst. The westerners were clinical when an opportunity arose for Carty to thread a precisely-weighted grubber kick through for Ronaldson to touch down and convert.
Connacht’s latest try scorer, who finished with a handsome 17 points, was replaced by Tom Farrell after an impressive outing at inside centre. Handling errors blighted Treviso’s attempts to respond with their second try of the afternoon.
Then, with the hour elapsed, O’Halloran celebrated his birthday in fine style. Following some lovely handling from Fox-Matamua, James Cannon and Quinn Roux, the full-back darted onto the latter’s pass to outstrip the Treviso cover and grab his second try in the space of eight days. Carty converted the province’s bonus point score and they were 34-5 to the good.
Connacht head coach Lam said afterwards that his side ‘had some outstanding moments but to give away three soft tries was disappointing’. Two of them came in the final ten minutes after Connacht had made a number of changes and taken their foot off the pedal slightly.
Treviso strung together two converted efforts late on, full-back Luca Sperandio scoring from a 70th-minute kick chase up the left wing and replacement winger David Odiete (75) was driven over by a couple of forwards following a stray Connacht pass. However, the bonus point evaded the Italians who are away to Ulster next Friday.
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