Connacht Head Into International Break With Fourth Straight Win

A superb solo try from Niyi Adeolokun inspired Connacht’s 23-15 GUINNESS PRO14 win over the Cheetahs at the Sportsground tonight.

The Ireland-capped winger, who was making his first senior start since knee surgery in the summer, struck in the 12th minute to set Kieran Keane’s men up for a 13-3 half-time lead.

Ernst Stapelberg’s late penalty opened the South Africans’ account, in response to Craig Ronaldson’s eight points off the tee, before Tom McCartney’s 48th-minute try had Connacht 17 points clear.

The Cheetahs hit back with final quarter tries from replacement Shaun Venter and Makazole Mapimpi – his eighth of the campaign – but Steve Crosbie’s 73rd-minute penalty guided the westerners to their fourth successive victory in all competitions.

Tiernan O’Halloran won the kicking battle early on, twice finding open territory. His second effort led to a John Muldoon-won penalty and a 3-0 lead via Ronaldson’s reliable left boot.

Although Stapelberg managed to block down his opposite number Jack Carty, the Cheetahs struggled to make headway. Connacht were at their clinical best when superb hands from Ronaldson and McCartney invited Niyi Adeolokun forward and he burned past Luther Obi and Fred Zeilinga for a scintillating score behind the posts.

After adding the simple conversion, Ronaldson pushed a long-range penalty wide before the pace of Mapimpi briefly caused the hosts some problems. The pressure was relieved by a well-won Eoin McKeon penalty.

Adeolokun then felt the full force of a thumping tackle from Cheetahs full-back Zeilinga which halted a promising Connacht attack, but Ronaldson rewarded a subsequent scrum with three more points.

The visitors came more into it approaching the interval, Nico Lee running hard in midfield and Stapelberg got them off the mark with a well-struck penalty.

The Cheetahs stand-off missed a long-range kick on the resumption, and Connacht were not long in adding to their tally as the wind and rain started to have more of an influence.

Excellent hands from man-of-the-match O’Halloran allowed Adeolokun to threaten out wide before the province’s forwards took over and hooker McCartney was driven over just to the left of the posts.

Carty converted for a 20-3 scoreline and neither side covered themselves in glory during some error-strewn passages of play, which included three overthrown lineouts from McCartney’s replacement Dave Heffernan.

The Cheetahs showed why they are currently third in Conference A when Venter shrugged off Matt Healy’s attempted tackle for a 40-metre run to the whitewash. The 67th minute score went unconverted.

Aided by replacement Crosbie’s subsequent penalty, Connacht managed to hold on despite leaking a late seven-pointer to the jet-heeled Mapimpi, who finished brilliantly on the left after lock Reniel Hugo had taken a quick tap.

Although pleased with the province’s recent results, straight-talking head coach Keane pointed out that there are obvious parts of Connacht’s game that need to be improved – particularly their defence which allowed the Cheetahs to mount a late surge.

“To the victor goes the spoils, but they (the Cheetahs) can feel a little bit hard done by. I thought if the game had gone any more minutes, they might have scored again,” said the New Zealander. “I thought we were starting to make massive defensive strides against Munster, but it’s a real head scratcher why we reverted back to pretty average ‘D’ from the previous week.

“Our tackling is not where it should be. We have a great defence coach (Peter Wilkins) who works tirelessly, and I really feel for him for the effort he has put in. It’s brought about a bit of change, but courage? You can’t coach courage and stuff like that, so it’s difficult for him.

“We have created pretty good ambition (in attack) which was really lacking in the first three or four weeks. Everyone was shovelling sh*t to be honest, and now they basically have an edge. I think they are enjoying the way we are playing, but it’s a 15-man thing. That has been up and down, we’ve made some progress, but our counter-attack is a little tame and our kicking game has been a concern.

“I set high standards and I want the boys to do really well, and there are some non-negotiables that need to be fixed – for example our exit strategies. We have worked tirelessly on that for 10 weeks and we are still struggling with it. We have to get that part of our game right. We will get found out if we don’t address those things.”