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Dave Heffernan stars as Connacht ease to victory over Cardiff Blues

By Online Editors
(Photo By Sam Barnes/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Ireland hooker Dave Heffernan delivered a man-of-the-match performance as Connacht ran out 29-0 bonus-point winners over Cardiff Blues at the Sportsground.

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Tries from Heffernan and Peter Robb, who celebrated his two-year contract extension, gave Connacht a deserved 15-0 interval lead as Jack Carty recaptured his pre-Rugby World Cup form at number 10.

Carty, who failed to make Ireland’s Six Nations squad, had a hand in John Porch’s 49th-minute score before Kyle Godwin bagged a breakaway bonus-point effort as the westerners ended their five-match losing run in all competitions.

Despite Nick Williams’ solid impact off the bench and a Denis Buckley yellow card, Cardiff continued to make errors and they now trail fourth-placed Connacht by six points in the Conference B table.

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WATCH: Footage of the Connacht’s Sportsground which is to get a €30m redevelopment which will take the capacity of the stadium to 12,000.

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Cardiff were on the back foot for much of the first half, losing three of their own lineouts and missing a dozen tackles.

James Ratti and Olly Robinson led their resistance, popping up with some crucial defensive interventions and turnovers.

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Carty opened the scoring with a fifth-minute penalty from in front of the posts, and his kicking out-of-hand kept Connacht on top of the territorial battle.

Full-back Tiernan O’Halloran also pinned Cardiff back with a clever touch-finder.

Lineout pressure from Gavin Thornbury, who worked brilliantly in tandem with Ultan Dillane, forced a loose throw from Cardiff’s Liam Belcher, who watched Heffernan gobble it up at the tail and weave his way past two defenders, crashing over past a poor Jason Tovey tackle to make it 10-0.

With Hallam Amos caught too narrow, Paul Boyle burst forward to set the wheels in motion for a 33rd-minute try. Carty slid a superb left-footed kick towards the right corner which was finished over the line by Robb, despite Dan Fish’s despairing tackle.

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Carty’s conversion attempt blew wide on the near side, and Cardiff had to scramble to avoid leaking another try before the interval. Jason Harries scrambled to bring down O’Halloran a few metres out, following Carty’s inviting offload out of a tackle.

Connacht did more damage in the third quarter, Carty’s skip pass putting Buckley into space and the replacement prop’s instinctive behind-the-back pass, under pressure from two defenders, found its way to Porch who finished off, with TMO Charles Samson ruling out a forward pass.

Carty converted and also added the extras to Godwin’s opportunistic 57th-minute touchdown, Robb reacting quickest to the ball squirting out of a Cardiff ruck just outside the Connacht 22 and sending his centre partner romping clear up the right wing.

The visitors failed to capitalise on a Will Boyde break and replacement Lewis Jones knocked on at a subsequent scrum.

Repeated infringements led to Buckley seeing yellow in the 64th minute, but Kristian Dacey’s crooked lineout throw meant the increasingly-frustrated Blues remained scoreless in Galway.

PA

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