Heffernan And Carty Guide Connacht Back To Winning Ways

Ireland hooker Dave Heffernan delivered a man-of-the-match performance as Connacht ran out impressive 29-0 bonus point winners over Cardiff Blues at the Sportsground.

Tries from Heffernan and Peter Robb, who celebrated his two-year contract extension, gave Connacht a deserved 15-0 interval lead, with Jack Carty recapturing his pre-Rugby World Cup form at number 10.

Carty, who failed to make Ireland’s Six Nations squad, had a hand in John Porch’s 49th-minute score, and fellow Australian Kyle Godwin bagged a breakaway bonus-point effort as the westerners ended their five-match losing run in all competitions.

Despite Nick Williams’ solid impact off the bench and a Denis Buckley yellow card, Cardiff continued to be error strewn and they now trail fourth-placed Connacht by six points in the Conference B table.

Cardiff were on the back foot for much of the first half, losing three of their own lineouts and missing a dozen tackles. James Ratti and Olly Robinson led their resistance, popping up with some crucial defensive interventions and turnovers.

Carty opened the scoring with a fifth minute penalty from in front of the posts, and his kicking out-of-hand kept Connacht on top of the territorial battle. Full-back Tiernan O’Halloran also pinned Cardiff back with a clever touchfinder.

Lineout pressure from Gavin Thornbury, who worked brilliantly in tandem with Ultan Dillane, forced a loose throw from Cardiff’s Liam Belcher, who watched Heffernan gobble it up at the tail and weave his way past two defenders, crashing over past a poor Jason Tovey tackle to make it 10-0.

With Hallam Amos caught too narrow, Paul Boyle flooded forward to set the wheels in motion for a 33rd minute try. Carty slid a superb left-footed kick towards the right corner which was finished over the line by Robb, despite Dan Fish’s despairing tackle.

Carty’s conversion attempt blew wide on the near side, and Cardiff had to scramble to avoid leaking another try before the interval. Jason Harries scrambled to bring down O’Halloran a few metres out, following Carty’s inviting offload out of a tackle.

Connacht did more damage in the third quarter, Carty’s skip pass putting Buckley into space and the replacement prop’s instinctive behind-the-back pass, under pressure from two defenders, found its way to Porch who finished off with TMO Charles Samson ruling out a forward pass.

Carty converted and also added the extras to Godwin’s opportunist 57th-minute touchdown, Robb reacting quickest to the ball squirting out of a Cardiff ruck just outside the Connacht 22 and he sent his centre partner romping clear up the right wing.

The visitors failed to capitalise on a Will Boyde break and replacement Lewis Jones knocked on at a subsequent scrum. Repeated infringements led to Buckley seeing yellow in the 64th minute, but Kristian Dacey’s crooked lineout throw and the increasingly-frustrated Blues remained scoreless in Galway.

Speaking after the game, Connacht head coach Andy Friend said: “We definitely needed that. We’ve had a really tough period, but I felt like we had got out of it with the performance against Toulouse – although a bit piecemeal – and Montpellier was better, but they were not wins.

“So to turn that into a winning performance, we are on track again, which is good. We will head to Edinburgh with confidence. When you are not winning games, you ask a lot of questions, and we did ask questions in that interprovincial block.

“Certainly the Ulster and Leinster games were our two lowest points, but I honestly felt we were building out of it. We didn’t for the first 40 (minutes) against Montpellier, but we have turned it around now, and have a bit of confidence.

“We want to reach the knockouts, and in a Conference that is very tight, not giving Cardiff a point, and for us to have a bonus point, will have an impact. It is all in our control, but we have to keep delivering performances like that.”