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.
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Honestly, lots. I would hate to think about many debutants they have been through over say the last dozen years. Always seems to be like rotating doors from this side of the fence.
Like I have said though, they obviously had visions for where they wanted the game to be in Australia and I do think the law helps facilitate that, and also in it's own way does also give some benefit to the Wallabies as well. I'd also imagine it is not cheap to bring large groups of players back, with having to compensate wages fully during periods of club rugby, as well as your local players still? But who knows, maybe if they have had to manage their funds differently they might have done a better job at it.
Go to commentsSo weird that NZ are going it alone in the first week as the sole attraction, and that Aus are making their season an extra week longer. Think I do recall the Scotland(?) game being outside the wonder. Wonder if they pull in a few into the main squad for the last two of their games then.
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