Connacht 18 Sale Sharks 25: After 86 minutes of rugby, a tired and drenched Connacht pack somehow managed to rumble across the Sale try line for the workaholic Matt Lacey to collapse upon the ball for a precious score.
Then, in the last act of the game, Eric Elwood landed a precious conversion kick from flush on the touchline. That touch was a sweet goodbye from Elwood, playing his last big-time rugby match at the Sportsground. And it was also vitally important, giving the Westerners some room for realistic negotiation when they visit the Sale constituency at the end of April.
"Seven points is not irretrievable," declared Michael Bradley, the coolest man in the stadium despite a draining encounter played under burning sun.
After much speculation, Sale did not start England number 10 Charlie Hodgson but managed to produce an outhalf equally erratic with his place kicks. American Mike Hercus hit just one of six over the first hour before landing his two most difficult kicks of the day, both touchline conversions that highlighted a period of dominance for his team.
Apart from Hercus's difficulty, Sale played the opportunist's game, capitalising on two cardinal, unforced errors by the home team to score the tries that brought them from 11-6 down to an ominous 25-11 lead on the stroke of full time.
The mistakes perhaps originated in excessive ambition, with Mike Swift getting isolated and stripped when attempting to run a ball from Connacht's 22-metre line. Hercus chipped deftly for Mark Cueto to chase down and although David Slemen tracked back, Sale made their power count from the resultant five-metre scrum. Sebastien Chabal, Sale's hirsute and busy Gallic number eight, controlled the heel and touched down.
Just under 10 minutes later, Connacht blew a scrum from the halfway line and Sale made ground before working the ball wide through Chabal and Jason Robinson for Cueto to finish in style. The powerful England wing also bulldozed over for Sale's last try, a score that appeared to give the visitors a handsome victory they hardly deserved.
"We got a double hit on him and he still got it down," marvelled Bradley.
That score had the feel of a heartbreaker. Connacht had played a lot of good rugby but looked to have met the end of the road. Throughout the game Andrew Farley, Christian Short and Lacey eclipsed their Sale counterparts in the lineout and for the first 50 minutes the front row held up well.
Things seemed to turn when Ray Hogan was sin-binned for being tempted by newcomer Barry Stewart into a round of fisticuffs. Given that referee Berdos conducted himself like a fussy housekeeper, it was an ill-advised move and the Connacht scrum suffered terribly from the disruption.
"I felt all but three scrums were fine," said Bradley. "(Sebastien) Bruno's forte is the scrum and I would imagine that it is an area where Sale feel they hold an advantage. But we did limit that."
They also took the whiz out of Robinson, Conor McPhillips's stupendous hit in the 70th minute the highlight of a successful policy of containment.
Connacht's defence stood up well in general, particularly in the first 10 minutes when the Manchunian candidates glimmered with intent. Elwood's great calm and precise kicking illuminated that testing period and he went on to give a classic account in his last hour playing against the high rollers of the modern game at the Sportsground.
He played fullback Robinson like a puppet on a string with a series of easeful kicks for the corner and bought Connacht acres of ground. Scrum half Chris Keane made a few poor decisions but his wonderful covering scoop and pass on Chabal's menacing kick and rush on 30 minutes was another highlight.
Despite losing Keane to the sin-bin for the first 10 minutes of the second half - Berdos was death on handling in the ruck - Connacht attacked Sale with confidence.
In the 49th minute, Paul Warwick returned an incredible kick from the edge of his own 22 as Robinson and Cueto thundered down on him, giving Connacht the field position for Elwood's familiar and wildly celebrated drop at goal (the veteran knew Berdos had already signalled a penalty).
Just then, there was a mood about the place, a sense Sale were growing disenchanted with the West of Ireland as so many rugby teams have done. Warwick went close with another drop-goal attempt and then, out of the blue, came that sustained, grim period of Sale pressure.
The scoreboard changed dramatically and it would have been easy for Connacht to wilt in the heat with the clock betraying them. But they ground out a steady movement upfield, their first visit to Sale territory in some time. Twice they kicked to the corner when the visitors infringed and late on they executed a move that mirrored Andrew Farley's 34th-minute try at the opposite end.
Then came Elwood's grace note. They will go to Edgely Park as outsiders and winning the tie outright would be a magnificent achievement from this position.
But, alone of the Irish provinces, they are not yet out of it.
In yesterday's other semi-final outhalf Ludovic Mercier scored 27 points as Pau beat Brive 37-16 to take a big step toward the final.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 2 mins: Hercus drop goal 0-3; 15: Elwood pen 3-3; 26: Hercus pen 3-6; 34: Farley try 8-6; Half-time: 8-6. 49: Elwood drop goal 11-6; 63: Chabal try 11-11; 73: Cueto try, Hercus con 11-18; 81: Cueto try, Hercus con 11-25; 86: Lacey try, Elwood con 18-25.
CONNACHT: M Mostyn; C McPhillips, D Yapp, M McHugh, D Slemen; E Elwood, C Keane; R Hogan, J Fogarty, P Bracken; C Short, A Farley; J Muldoon, M Lacey, J O'Sullivan. Replacements: P Warwick for Yapp, S Snoop for Bracken (both half-time); B Jackman for Fogarty, M Swift for O'Sullivan (both 50 mins); D McFarland for Hogan (75 mins).
SALE: J Robinson; M Cueto, C Rhys Jones, R Todd, S Hanley; M Hercus, S Martens; A Sheridan, S Bruno, S Turner; C Jones, D Schofield; J White, A Titterall, S Chabal. Replacements: B Redpath for Martens (47 mins); B Steward for Turner (53 mins); C Lobbe for Bruno (67 mins); J Payne for Jones (77 mins); R Wigglesworth for Hanley (83 mins).
Referee: C Berdos (France).
