Bradley Relief At Opening Win

Christian Short and John Fogarty sandwich Cardiff’s Mike Phillips

Connacht are building a little momentum at the Sportsground, despite the poor quality of Saturday’s 13-9 Celtic League defeat of Cardiff Blues.

The westerners’ win – adding to pre-season successes over Parma and Leicester Tigers – sees them sitting pretty in third in the standings after what was an altogether uninspiring opening weekend for the League’s participants.

Admittedly “nervous” beforehand, given the fact that the Welsh region travelled with an unbeaten record against Connacht, home coach Michael Bradley was a relieved man on the final whistle as eight points from the boot of Paul Warwick and Conor McPhillips’ 53rd-minute try handed his side the spoils.

Bradley said: “This was a vital win for us. I knew if we lost, we were heading into two difficult away games.

“We’ve to go to Edinburgh and Llanelli next so it’s very important for us to win our home games and keep in touch.”

Saturday’s victory was all the more important given that it ended a fruitless run of five straight competitive defeats for Connacht in Galway.

New Cardiff captain Rhys Williams was left clutching at straws as his side were held at bay by Connacht’s stoic defence in the latter stages of the second half.

“We spilled ball and turned over possession and our handling let us down at crucial opportunities,” admitted the Welsh international.

“We were good in the first half as we soaked up all the pressure and stopped Connacht scoring. But they came into our half twice in the second half and scored a converted try and a drop-goal, while we could not break them down.”