Mack may be back but Stormers blow Connacht away in Galway

Connacht let a second-half lead slip in their opening match in Galway as Stormers hit back with two late tries to seal the South African side a 29-15 win.

Stormers punished Connacht for their sloppy opening, with Jurie Matthee’s early penalty and full-back Warrick Gelent’s superb converted try giving the visitors a 10-0 lead.

Connacht finished the first half strongly and five minutes before the interval, wing Mack Hansen followed up Cathal Forde’s barnstorming run to dive over for a converted score.

The home side struck again to take a 12-10 half-time lead when Hansen’s break ended with Josh Ioane touching down and full-back Sam Gilbert’s penalty then put them 15-10 in front.

Connacht back-row Paul Boyle was sent to the sin bin in the 55th minute and Stormers took advantage to edge 17-15 ahead through prop Sazi Sandi’s converted effort.

Fixture

United Rugby Championship

Connacht

15 - 29

Full-time

Stormers

All Stats and Data

And in the final two minutes, Stormers struck twice more through hooker Vernon Paulo and replacement scrum-half Ezekiel Ngobeni, who raced on to a kick downfield to seal victory for the visitors.

Meanwhile, Scarlets fly-half Tinus de Beer struck a post with a last-gasp conversion attempt as the Welsh side opened their campaign with a 19-19 draw against Benetton in Treviso.

Benetton centre Francois Mey and hooker Bautista Bernasconi both went over for converted tries to give the Italian side a 14-0 lead.

Scarlets reduced the deficit through De Beer’s touchdown, which he converted, but Benetton, with former Wales coach Wayne Pivac taking charge of his first match, struck again before the interval through wing Ignacio Mendy’s score.

Tonga centre Fine Inisi hauled Scarlets back into it five minutes after the restart after good work by the pack and after De Beer converted, they trailed 19-14.

The visitors thought they had levelled it up when scrum-half Che Hope darted over, but his effort was ruled out by the television match official due to Huw Anderson’s knock-on.

Scarlets then had the chance to snatch victory after hooker Elliot Dee touched down following a driving maul from a line-out in the 78th minute, only for De Beer’s kick from out wide to strike an upright.