Connacht made it seven consecutive wins this season with a three-try 21-17 victory over Brive in round 2 of the European Challenge Cup.
Connacht head coach Pat Lam praised his side’s ‘mental toughness and resilience’ as they continued on the winning trail, following up on last weekend’s bonus point success against Enisei-STM in Siberia.
This evening’s clash at the Sportsground, watched by a 4,357 attendance, took a while to get going, Brive full-back Romain Sola missing a second minute penalty from distance and also pushing an easier 13th minute kick wide following a strong scrum.
Connacht made headway towards the end of the first quarter. Robbie Henshaw, who featured in the centre with Bundee Aki, used scrum ball to grubber downfield and follow up with a lineout-winning tackle.
Man-of-the-match Niyi Adeolokun, who came in as a late replacement for Danie Poolman (tight hamstring), was tackled into touch after Kieran Marmion had peeled off the back of a maul and possession was spread wide to the left wing.
Connacht exerted more territorial pressure into the second quarter, with out-half Jack Carty pointing the way with a couple of excellent touchfinders.
Connacht continued to chip away at the French defence, Henshaw just being held up from a well-placed chip from Marmion who had to react quickly, along with Adeolokun, to defend a threatening Brive counter attack just moments later.
Crucially, the visitors maintained their advanced position and having forced Connacht into touch, their own five-metre lineout led to hooker Thomas Acquier driving over for a 28th minute try. It went unconverted as Sola missed his third shot at the posts.
Importantly, Connacht responded in strong fashion before half-time with Carty landing two penalties either side of a five-pointer from Academy back Rory Parata – his second in the space of seven days.
A scrum penalty allowed Carty ro open Connacht’s account in the 33rd minute and then only two minutes later, the Athlone man’s cross-field kick was tapped back by captain Tiernan O’Halloran for winger Parata to score out wide.
Following the missed conversion, Connacht continued to press for a late score and with Andrew Browne impeded at a five-metre lineout, Carty fired over the resulting penalty to give the westerners an 11-5 interval lead.
Lam’s men started the second period strongly with an unconverted try inside five minutes. A well-worked team move led to fit-again second row Ben Marshall crossing in the right corner in what was his first start for the province.
The celebrations were short-lived, though, as the powerful Brive outfit responded immediately with a five-pointer from their winger Benito Masilevu, following an impressive break, making it 16-10.
The French side made four substitutions just before Ireland international Marmion crashed over for the westerners’ third try out wide on the left, the end-product of some excellent interplay involving the in-form Adeolokun and Henshaw.
With three tries in the bag, Connacht went in search of the bonus point but a series of injuries – front rowers Dave Heffernan and Ronan Loughney had to pack down in the back row towards the end of the game – made the task all the more difficult. They lost influential flanker Nepia Fox-Matamua to a suspected knee ligament injury.
The hosts failed to capitalise on a five-metre lineout and Henshaw was also just denied by a last-ditch tackle from Said Hireche in the right corner. Brive were back to their clinical best in the 73rd minute, using a close-in set piece and subsequent maul to send Sevanaia Galala over for a try which fellow replacement Teddy Iribaren converted.
That concession set up a nervy finish for Connacht with just four points now separating the sides. But the well-travelled westerners, whose collective return from Russia was delayed to Tuesday due to problems with their charter plane, missed flights and visas, dug deep in defence, winning a crucial turnover in their 22 as the clock hit 80 minutes.
Brive will have been pleased to claim a hard-fought losing bonus point in Galway, but Connacht hold a four-point advantage at the top of Challenge Cup Pool 1 ahead of next month’s back-to-back encounters with Newcastle Falcons.
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