Connacht beat Llanelli by 33 points to 19

Fortress Galway!
By LDTT
February 21 2006

Connacht gained four precious points in their bid to escape the foot of the Celtic League table with a 33-19 iwn over the Llanelli Scarlets on Saturday. On a bright sunny day in Galway, Connacht produced a characteristicly tough second half display to put Llanelli to the sword.

It was Connacht's second win in three outings; second-half tries from number eight Colm Rigney, influential fly-half Paul Warwick, who kicked six of his seven attempts at goal for a 21-point haul, and his replacement David Slemen helping Connacht to their fourth straight win at the Sportsground.

For Gareth Jenkins' visitors, it was a fourth defeat on the bounce. The Welsh side led 16-12 at half-time thanks to tries from young winger Darren Daniel and New Zealand centre Regan King, but their efforts waned after the restart.

The Irishmen began well in sunny conditions, grabbing the lion's share of possession. Warwick, making his first start in four league games, landed penalties on seven and 14 minutes to erase Mike Hercus' fourth-minute opener.

Connacht fly-half Paul Warwick kept his side in touch with four penalties, but Llanelli were indebted to good work from Mike Hercus and Adam Jones which sent Regan King through for his second try for the Scarlets.

Hercus, who had earlier kicked two penalties, handed over the kicking duties to full-back Barry Davies when he suffered an injury which forced him to retire at half-time.

Davies missed a straightforward penalty before the break and was also off target with his attempt to convert King's try.

Connacht turned up the heat in the second half to make it four wins on the trot at the Sportsground venue.

Scrum-half Chris Keane, busy as ever throughout, went blindside off a maul within a minute of the restart to send No 8 Colm Rigney racing through on an excellent line to get their opening try.

Warwick's conversion made it 19-16, but better followed 10 minutes later. Several forays had been repelled before Warwick spotted a gap in the drift defence and dashed in under the posts, adding the points to make it 26-16.

Gareth Bowen, an interval replacement for the injured Mike Hercus, pulled back a penalty after 56 minutes for a Scarlets side being starved of possession.

However, it was not long before Connacht were back in control and they managed a third try when Tongan centre

Andrew Mailei ripped back possession.

It was the start of another flowing move which ended with replacement fly-half David Slemen shredding the defence for another converted try.

Connacht continued to dominate after that, but could not conjure up a fourth try which would have given them the bonus point they deserved.

"The Catania loss was a big wake-up call for us," said Connacht coach Michael Bradley, referring to the shock away defeat which has made their European Challenge Cup hopes more difficult.

"We should have won that game, but made simple mistakes and were punished.

"But we have used that result over the past few weeks to get things right.

"We spoke about it before the Scarlets game. We have learned a lot from that defeat.

"We have had to wait a few weeks for our first chance to get over the Catania match, so it was good to win this one."