Dave Heffernan stars as Connacht ease to victory over Cardiff Blues
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments