Late Cathal Forde penalty earns Connacht slim win over Scarlets

Cathal Forde’s penalty three minutes from time broke Scarlets’ hearts as Connacht snatched a 24-23 win to record their fourth successive victory over the Welsh region.

Connacht shaded the battle after outscoring their hosts three tries to two at Parc y Scarlet, with Piers O’Conor, Mack Hansen and Ben Murphy crossing for the visitors.

Jack Carty converted all three before Forde slotted over the match-winning penalty to help Connacht claim a second win of the new United Rugby Championship season.

Gareth Davies scored two tries for Scarlets with Sam Costelow converting both and kicking two penalties. Ioan Lloyd also added a penalty for the hosts but it was not enough to prevent winless Scarlets from suffering a second loss.

A mistake from Scarlets full-back Ioan Nicholas gifted the Irish outfit an early lead. A cross-field kick from Carty put Nicholas under pressure and his stray pass found no-one, with O’Conor taking advantage to touch down.

Worse was to follow for the hosts when Tom Rogers was sent to the sin bin for preventing a quick throw-in before Connacht appeared to have extended their lead when Dave Heffernan finished off a driving line-out, although the try was ruled out for an earlier obstruction.

However, Connacht were still able to take advantage of Rogers’ absence when another cross-field from Carty provided Hansen with the simple task of collecting to score.

Scarlets received a boost when Bundee Aki was yellow-carded for a high shot on Costelow and they capitalised when Blair Murray and Dan Davis made crucial contributions to set up a try for Davies.

Aki was still in the bin when skilful handling from Johnny Williams sent Eddie James away and he in turn put Davies in under the posts for his second try of the night.

Aki returned in time to see his side regain the lead when Conor Oliver and Paul Boyle combined to set up a try for Murphy with Carty’s third conversion giving his side a 21-14 interval advantage.

A Costelow penalty was the first score of the second half but the fly-half then departed for an HIA, leaving Lloyd to reduce the arrears with another penalty.

Those two penalties were the only scores in the first half-hour of the second period, leading to a tense finish with an error from Hansen gifting Scarlets a needless scoring opportunity.

The wing ran from inside his own 22 and was penalised for not releasing so Costelow knocked over the kick to put his side ahead 23-21, but Forde ensured Connacht had the final say.