Frustrating Night For Connacht As Bristol Take The Spoils

Connacht fell to a second successive Heineken Champions Cup defeat as Pool B rivals Bristol Bears ran out 27-18 bonus point winners at the Sportsground.

An error-strewn first half ended 5-3 in Bristol’s favour, their ex-Leinster hooker Bryan Byrne crossing for a 34th-minute try before Jack Carty kicked a penalty.

Bundee Aki’s yellow card early on the resumption was punished with first Champions Cup tries for Ed Holmes (47 minutes) and Piers O’Conor (50).

Connacht clawed their way back with a Tiernan O’Halloran try and Carty’s second penalty, either side of Siale Piutau’s 66th-minute sin-binning.

However, ex-Connacht boss Pat Lam watched his Bristol side close it out as Ioan Lloyd and John Porch swapped tries before Callum Sheedy’s clinching penalty in the 77th minute.

Lineout errors and a run of penalties made for a sloppy start from both sides. England tighthead Kyle Sinckler was central to a couple of scrum penalties, but a promising attack from Harry Randall’s quick tap petered out.

Connacht were sparked into life by a terrific break from Kieran Marmion. It was Sheedy who came to Bristol’s rescue with a try-saving tackle on Alex Wootton and then the Wales out-half gleaned a turnover when Eoghan Masterson was held up.

The hosts lost a costly lineout back in their own 22 and Bristol were finally able to break the deadlock. They won a penalty, went for the corner and Byrne was driven over in businesslike fashion.

Sheedy missed the difficult conversion from wide out on the left, before a late Connacht attack saw Carty open their account.

The westerners were really under the pump during Aki’s sin-bin period, their star centre seeing yellow for pulling back O’Conor as he chased Siva Naulago’s kick through.

Nathan Hughes soon broke a tackle and released second row Holmes who bounced up from a Paul Boyle tackle to score in the left corner.

Sheedy converted and also added the extras to O’Conor’s slicky-finished try, the eventual Heineken star-of-the-match romping over from the left wing after a Max Malins assist.

Connacht hit back quickly when Caolin Blade’s well-flighted pass put fellow replacement O’Halloran over from close range.

Carty converted and then reduced the arrears to six points, nailing a 67th-minute place-kick after Piutau was binned for a late challenge on O’Halloran.

Two well-worked tries followed, Welsh teenager Lloyd diving over to add to last week’s effort against Clermont. Australian Porch answered back, getting on the end of a lovely handling move across the Connacht back-line.

Carty’s missed conversion left a six-point margin, and it was nine in the end thanks to Sheedy’s penalty. Connacht blew a shot at a losing bonus point, turning down a kickable penalty before Sam Arnold was tackled into touch by Ben Earl.

Speaking in the aftermath, Connacht head coach Andy Friend admitted: “(I’m) disappointed, frustrated, annoyed, cranky, all of those. I just didn’t think we played our best footy out there.

“We got caught in an arm wrestle out there that we didn’t want to. I just think we did some dumb stuff out there. It is frustrating, but at the end of the day Bristol were the better team out there and you got to give them credit for that.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to trust the players out on the field and if they feel that they’ve got momentum with things (for that late penalty) and they think they can get over then I’ll back that.”