Connacht beat the Borders in the Netherdale

Try Scorer
By LDTT
September 9 2006

Connacht wearing their new all-black strip beat the Border Reivers in the Netherdale. Warwick & Williams were the try scorers with McHugh adding 16 points of his own. Finishing up 15-29 in their first game of the season puts Connacht in a great position with seven home games in a row to follow.

The Borders started brightly with two penalties in the opening twenty minutes from Full Back MacCrae, however, as Connacht pressed back into the game, it was the Borders indiscipline that gave Connacht two penalties of their own. The first came when Williams was tripped and the second was awarded for an obstruction on Warwick who was in for a certain try had he not been obstructed grom collecting his own grubber kick.

The Borders found some composure towards the end of the half to earn themselves another penalty and retook the lead, but on the stroke of half time, McHugh missed a difficult kick which would have had the sides level at half time.

In the second half, it was Connacht who started the brighter, and it was starman Muldoon who typified the effort of the Connacht pack. The forwards created the platform for McHugh to take the ball on and release Gavin Williams, who ran under the posts for his first try for Connacht. McHugh added the simplist of convertions

Borders were shaken into action and struck back with a penalty of their own three minutes later, but as the rain came down, it was the men of the west who faced up to the elements better. Mark McHugh controlled the game from behind the pack with his trade mark booming kicks pinning the Reivers in their own half for long periods. And it was he who got the next score, a penalty from the 10 metre line which just crept over the crossbar.

McHugh has earned a reputation for punishing sides who give him shots at goal, however he did miss another with just two minutes on the clock. The shot to take Connacht seven clear, struck the up right and the Reivers tried to run it out of play. Connachts defense was immense, even in their opponents 22, and the ball was turned over, and fed to Paul Warwick, who promptly slotted the cheaky drop goal just over the bar. Seven points clear, and most would have expected Connacht to sit out the remaining time on the clock, but it's perhaps a sign of things to come, that Connacht took the ball on again, and with Warwick collecting his own kick, beating three players to slide for a try to the right of the posts.

Connacht 29, Borders 15. Connacht with a huge win to put them on top of the Magners League, if only for the night, it will be no doubt serve as boost for the forth coming run of home games at the Sportsground.



The scorers:

For Border Reivers:
Pens: MacRae 3, MacDougall 2

For Connacht:
Tries: Williams, Warwick
Cons: McHugh 2
Pens: McHugh 4
Drops: Warwick

The teams:

Border Reivers: 15 Calum MacRae, 14 Simon Danielli, 13 Ben MacDougall, 12 Garry Law, 11 Nick De Luca, 10 Gregor Townsend, 9 Chris Cusiter, 8 Ross Beattie, 7 Scott Gray, 6 Kelly Brown, 5 Stuart Grimes, 4 Craig Hamilton, 3 Bruce Douglas, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Gavin Kerr.
Replacements: 16 Steve Scott, 17 Ed Kalman, 18 Opeta Palepoi, 19 John Dalziel, 20 Brendan McKerchar, 21 Andy Miller, 22 Steve Jones.

Connacht: 15 Matt Mostyn, 14 Conor McPhillips, 13 Paul Warwick, 12 Gavin Williams, 11 Darren Yapp, 10 Mark McHugh (c), 9 Chris Keane, 8 Colm Rigney, 7 Matt Lacey, 6 John Muldoon, 5 Andrew Farley, 4 David Gannon, 3 Stephen Knoop, 2 Adrian Flavin, 1 Brett Wilkinson.
Replacements: 16 John Fogarty, 17 Michael Diffley, 18 Michael Swift, 19 Brendan O'Connor, 20 Tom Tierney, 21 Keith Matthews, 22 Daniel Riordan.

Referee:
Tim Hayes (WRU)
Touch Judges:
Iain Ramage (SRU), Bob Nevins (SRU)