Connacht 9 Falcons 32

By Mark H
August 18 2004

Falcons have gone to the Sports Ground in Galway this evening, and boosted by a 40 minute appearance from Jonny Wilkinson, have beaten the hosts 32-9.

This is the first of the pre-season friendlies, with a trip to Thomond Park in Limerick to follow on Monday.

Second half tries from Andy Long on his Falcons debut, Dave Walder, Stuart Grimes and Mathew Tait, together with two conversions and a penalty from Dave Walder added to Wilkinson's first half penalty for Falcons, who trailed 9-3 at the interval.  Eric Elwood, making his 150th appearance for Connacht, kicked all of the home side's points.

It's a cracking start for Falcons, and with Wilkinson appearing at this stage to have come through his excursion unscathed, a great boost for that match with Munster next week.  The only concern injury wise for Falcons was a dead leg for Tom May.

Elsewhere on Tuesday evening, London Irish won 12-5 at Munster in what was described as a scrappy affair.

As news comes in from our Irish (well, Monkey1ish) correspondent, we'll to it here.  In the meantime, keep abreast of what the world's media think (it must be the highest profile pre-season game ever!) via our message board.