Niyi Adeolokun helped himself to a hat-trick of tries as Connacht closed out the Challenge Cup pool stages with a runaway 50-14 bonus point victory over Oyonnax at the Sportsground.
The flying Ireland international touched down inside the opening 20 seconds, putting the westerners on course to top Pool 5 after an unbeaten run of five wins and a draw which has earned them home advantage in the quarter-finals. Their opponents will be Gloucester who finished as runners-up to Pau in Pool 3.
With Niyi Adeolokun notching his hat-trick on the half hour mark, fellow back Bundee Aki, Tiernan O’Halloran and Matt Healy, on the occasion of his 100th Connacht cap, also touched down to give Connacht a 36-14 lead at the interval.
Axel Muller and Daniel Ikpefan were Oyonnax’s try scorers, and the visitors deserve credit for slowing up Connacht’s scoring rate until Tom Farrell made it over out wide in the 66th minute and try number eight arrived late in the form of a scrum-won penalty try.
It was man-of-the-match Adeolokun who got the scoreboard moving within seconds of the kick-off. Oyonnax had a kick blocked down and Adeolokun won the race to gather Kieran Marmion’s pinpoint chip over the top and score in the right corner. Craig Ronaldson was just wide with his conversion attempt.
It was 12-0 to Connacht by the third minute, prop Conor Carey carrying with intent before O’Halloran’s excellent offload out of a double tackle sent Adeolokun gliding past the covering defender to score behind the posts and out-half Ronaldson converted.
A monster 25-metre maul up the left wing preceded Aki’s 10th-minute score as he finished off another well-weighted kick through from Marmion, the ball sitting up invitingly for the onrushing Ireland centre to dot down just to the left of the posts.
Ronaldson’s left-footed conversion briefly had the French side 19 points in arrears, but they used a couple of penalties to get into striking range and following a bout of pressure on the Connacht line, full-back Muller stretched out of a tackle from Eoghan Masterson to score near the left corner. Anthony Fuertes added a well-struck conversion.
Muller’s opposite number O’Halloran bagged Connacht’s bonus point by the 20-minute mark after Aki’s delayed pass put Eoin Griffin darting into a gap and Healy was up in support to deliver the scoring pass to his back-three colleague.
Evading three defenders via Griffin’s looping pass, Adeolokun completed his hat-trick with a cracking finish after some impressive handling from the home backs. Healy got in on the act a couple of minutes later, running in his eighth European try of the season thanks to a series of well-timed passes from Ultan Dilane, captain John Muldoon and Aki. O’Halloran converted as Ronaldson had departed with a suspected hamstring injury.
The Connacht defence gave way on the stroke of half-time as Oyonnax winger Ikpefan cut through for their second try, a high-quality effort from outside the 22. Despite a disjointed feel to the second period with a number of replacements coming on, Connacht, who had moved O’Halloran to out-half, wrestled back control of the game in the final quarter.
Adeolokun was almost over from his fourth try early on the resumption, but both sides were guilty of missed scoring opportunities as Oyonnax threw a crooked lineout and the visitors did enough to deny replacement scrum half Caolin Blade who went close from a brilliant 50-metre break.
The 5,017-strong crowd watched further breaks from forwards Dillane and James Connolly, although handling errors prevented Connacht from adding to their lead. That was until nice hands in the visitors’ 22 released centre Farrell to score on the right hand side and O’Halloran expertly tagged on the extras for 43-14.
Despite the injury-enforced departure of tighthead Carey, Connacht’s scrum was in dominant form to win a penalty try with five minutes remaining. That score saw Connacht hit the half-century mark for the second time in three pool matches. They have now won their last six home fixtures in Europe, equalling their best ever run between December 2008 and April 2010.
Speaking afterwards, Connacht’s latest centurion Healy said: “It couldn’t have gone better for us tonight. It was a little bit of a runaway in the end, I thought we were clinical, the forwards had a great game, the maul went well and a couple of backs really shone.
“Niyi got man-of-the-match and a hat-trick for himself, so it was a good day all round. The weather cleared up and it was perfect for us, it was the running rugby we like to play so it worked out well. We’ve a couple of weeks off now, a bit of rest and we’re back to the Sportsground for a couple of back-to-back games which is exciting.”
Adeolokun added: “We’re delighted to get the quarter-final, especially at home. It’s always great to play at home in the Sportsground because it’s going to get loud, it’ll be noisy and they’ll get behind us so we’re delighted to be able to play at home – it just gives us every chance to get further.”
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