Connacht draw strength from Cardiff

By Sea_point
April 11 2007

Connacht dented Cardiff Blues' chances of challenging for the Magners League title as they earned a well deserved draw 16-16 with Welsh outfit in front of a poor turnout of just over 1500 at the Sportsground. Blues full-back Ben Blair was left ruing two missed penalty opportunities , while Connacht will be dissapointed in the knowledge that they had actually done enough to take all the points themselves.

Connacht (13) 21 Cardiff Blues (10) 16

Connacht: Tries: McHugh, Ofisa. Cons: Warwick. Pens: Warwick 3.

Cardiff Blues: Tries: Shanklin. Cons: Blair. Pens: Blair 3

Attendance: 1,536

In a tense encounter, Connacht leaked an early try to Welsh international Tom Shanklin but after flanker Ray Ofisa's 18th-minute try, they were never headed. Place-kickers Paul Warwick and Blair landed three penalties and a conversion apiece as the teams failed to be split for the first time in eight meetings.

Having won three of their last four league games, Cardiff oozed confidence from the kick-off and spread the ball wide through Nick Robinson. His offload found Shanklin, who was captaining the Blues for only the third time in his career, and the Wales centre dummied the cover to score in the corner.

After just two minutes on the clock, the Cardiff men were 7-0 ahead and looking good to push on, but Connacht clawed their way back into contention with a period of sustained pressure through their excellent forward pack, and Warwick registered their first score with a 25-metre penalty.

Centre Marc Stcherbina then coughed up a good try-scoring chance for the Blues, and Connacht missed two golden opportunities themselves as Mark McHugh narrowly failed to hold onto an intercept pass with the line beckoning and Andrew Farley was also halted only metres from the line by a big tackle from Blues, Wales and British Lions  prop Gethin Jenkins.

At the third attempt the Gods shone on Connacht when their industrious Samoan flanker Ray Ofisa muscled his way over to the left of the posts for Warwick to convert them into a much deserved 10-7 lead.

A debatable scrum offence allowed Blair to boot the visitors level, but Michael Bradley's showed their resolve by nosing their way back in front - 13-10 - before half-time thanks to a Warwick penalty, which followed a sin-binning for Blues flanker Scott Morgan for clear obstruction.

Connacht to the ire of their supporters failed to add any more points while Morgan was off the field, and unsurprisingly the Blues drew strength from this just after the restart.

Blair launched over a levelling penalty and when Connacht opted to kick a penalty to touch in an attempt to launch their devastating rolling maul, the Welsh side's defence however stood up strong to eventually clear the danger.

Patient build-up carved out another scoring opportunity for Warwick and he duly obliged with a 59th-minute penalty - which however, proved to be Connacht's final score.

Blair soon tied up the game again but much to the relief of the Connacht support the New Zealander appeared to have lost his nerve in the closing stages. After Warwick had whacked a penalty off the upright, Blair slipped when attempting to kick a 40-yard penalty through the posts. It sailed wide and, agonisingly for the small pocket of Blues fans, he also drilled an injury-time effort off the post.

Connacht: G Duffy; D Yapp, J Hearty, M McHugh, C McPhillips; P Warwick, C Keane; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, S Knoop; M Swift, A Farley; J Muldoon, R Ofisa, C Rigney.

Replacements: D Slemen for McHugh, 18 mins; J Fogarty for Flavin, 56 mins; R Hogan for Knoop, 56 mins; A Browne for Swift, 66 mins;

Cardiff Blues: B Blair; T James, T Shanklin, M Stcherbina, C Czekaj; N Robinson, M Phillips; G Jenkins, G Williams, T Filise; B Davies, R Sidoli; S Morgan, R Sowden-Taylor, M Lewis.

Replacements: T Riley for James, 64 mins; R Thomas for Williams, 64 mins; A Powell for Morgan, 64 mins; S Roberts for Filise, 76 mins.

Referee: P Allen (Scotland).