MAGNERS LEAGUE: Connacht 12 Cardiff Blues 26:CARDIFF CONTINUED their push for a top-four place at the Galway Sportsground last night to bring Connacht's most successful home run to an end in their final outing in front of their fans.
They had hoped to extend their winning home record in the Magners League to six but two second-half sin-binnings proved their undoing.
Connacht started brightly and were deserving of their 12-10 half-time lead, but they failed to add to their score in the second half as Cardiff took control.
Ian Keatley was on song with the boot, opening with a third- minute effort after the Blues were caught offside. The visitors quickly responded and from a penalty to touch they produced a series of probing drives from their pack, and when Johnny O’Connor was pinged at a ruck, Scottish international Dan Parks took the chance to reply.
Connacht won themselves a 13th-minute penalty which Keatley, the second highest scorer of the Magners League, converted to post his 201st point this season.
The home side continued to enjoy territorial dominance and capitalised when hooker Gareth Williams conceded a penalty for mouthing, and Keatley struck his third penalty from 26 metres to put his side 9-3 up after 27 minutes.
Cardiff’s physical approach, however, started to make an impact with their midfield pairing of Jamie Roberts and Casey Laulala always threatening and they once again took advantage of a penalty to touch to establish position. Despite some solid defence, eventually Laulala crossed for the opening try on 29 minutes.
However Connacht, with the last action of the half, grabbed a slender lead when Keatley struck his fourth penalty.
It proved short-lived as Cardiff struck immediately after the restart with a Parks penalty. Even-stevens in the set piece, Cardiff were able to take full advantage when Ofisa was harshly binned for what was deemed a dangerous tackle on Roberts.
Parks added the penalty to push the lead to seven points before the sin-binning of fullback Gavin Duffy added to the home side’s woes with Bradley Davies sealing the victory with a 74th-minute try.
CONNACHT:G Duffy; B Tuohy, N Ta'auso, T Nathan, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy; R Loughney, S Cronin, J Hagan, B Upton, M McCarthy, A Browne, J O'Connor, R Ofisa. Replacements: J Muldoon for Browne (half-time), B Wilkinson for Loughney (48 mins), R Ah You for Hagan (51 mins), E Griffin for Nathan (65 mins), A Flavin for Cronin (75 mins), M McComish for Ofisa (77 mins).
CARDIFF: C Czekaj; L Halfpenny, C Laulala, J Robert, T James; D Parks, R Rees; J Yapp, G Williams T Filise, B Davies, P Tito (capt), M Molitika, M Williams, X Rush. Replacements: M Paterson for Molitika (67 mins), D Jones for Tito and L Williams for Rees (72 mins), S Hobbs for J Yapp (75 mins).
Referee:A McMenemy (SRU).
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