Connacht’s European adventures are over for this season after they lost a thrilling Challenge Cup quarter-final by a single point to Bernard Jackman’s Grenoble side at Stade des Alpes.
Out-half Jonathan Wisniewski was Grenoble’s 23-point hero on the night, nailing a late drop goal to complete a memorable comeback win for the French club who now face a semi-final trip to Harlequins.
The home side had to recover from a 16-point deficit in the first half and then had to close a 13-point gap in the second half as Connacht, inspired by free-running full-back Matt Healy, scored four tries.
Pat Lam’s men will be kicking themselves for not consolidating their lead in both halves of this brilliantly entertaining game. The westerners sought space on the flanks all night and they found the first gap in the 10th minute when a terrific cut-out pass from Bundee Aki put Healy into space.
The full-back’s searing pace created a simple two-on-one situation in the home 22 and he expertly released flying winger Niyi Adeolokun for the first of his two tries.
Shane O’Leary added the conversion and the out-half’s well-placed cross-field kick – coming on the back of elusive running from Healy and Kieran Marmion – teed up a leaping Robbie Henshaw for a second try in the 22nd minute.
Wisniewski managed a penalty to split those two, but Bernard Jackman’s charges were rocked again when Healy paved the way for a third try, and a second for Adeolokun, with another fantastic break in what was turning into an electric team performance. O’Leary converted and Connacht were flying at 19-3 with 10 minutes to go to the break.
But then came the errors that enabled Grenoble to cut the gap to three points by the half-time whistle. Inspired by his success with his kick for Henshaw’s score, O’Leary tried the same in his 22 and the move went wrong. Grenoble got a toe hold in the 22 and it led to Wisniewski threading his way through the eye of a needle to score a try at the posts which he also converted.
He then kicked a penalty and added another from long range to bring the first half to an end with Connacht’s lead reduced significantly to 19-16. However, things improved for the visitors at the start of the second half with another wonder break from Healy for a fourth try.
O’Leary converted and then added a penalty following a solid scrum effort to re-establish a 13-point advantage at 29-26 after 53 minutes. But Grenoble came thundering back into the contest on the hour and when Denis Buckley was sent to the sin-bin for coming into a ruck to prevent a try on his own line, the French outfit smelt blood.
They used their numerical advantage to create space for winger Lucas Dupont to score and then livewire flanker Mahamadou Diaby crossed in the right corner. Wisniewski, cool as a cucumber, converted them both to edge his side ahead, 30-29.
Back came Connacht with a penalty just moments late from replacement scrum half John Cooney, who took over the kicking duties following O’Leary’s departure, with Henshaw slotting in at out-half. Yet, the unerring Wisniewski was not in the mood to be outdone and slipped back into the pocket to win the game with his 75th minute drop goal.
Giving his reaction afterwards, Connacht head coach Lam said: “We’re obviously very disappointed we didn’t get the result, but I’m extremely proud of the guys. I sat in the changing room with the guys, I was obviously deflated and then I just started to reflect on the week we’ve had.
“We had a lot of last-minute changes (including losing Eoin McKeon to illness), the travel, all of that, and I thought, ‘Jeez, I’m proud of these guys’. A few guys out of position and we’re down to the bare bones in a few positions.
“We’ll be disappointed when we look back on Monday, because there were a couple of details we didn’t nail and there’s an opportunity when we’re 13 points up and we didn’t execute what we’d done at training.
“When we saw it, we would have scored a couple. At 13 points up we just needed another score to kill them off and fair play to them. I said before the game that the two teams with mindset, they’ll keep coming back and they’ve got some real quality there.
“Boys are out on their feet trying to keep them out. Obviously the yellow card (for Denis) didn’t help us, but when they went ahead with the drop goal there was a lot of composure. I thought we should have kept the ball at the end there. Everyone always tells us to kick it out, but we kicked the ball out and they scored, so that’s maybe backing it when it really counts.”
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