Favourites' tag weighs heavily on Connacht

AMLIN CHALLENGE CUP: I Cavalieri Estre 23, Connacht 21: THE FAVOURITES' tag does not sit easily on Connacht and, for a second time in the Amlin Challenge Cup history, an Italian outfit grabbed a shock victory over the Irish province.

I Cavalieri Estra, playing Serie A rugby two seasons ago, entered Europe for the first time more in hope than expectation. But with ambitions to become the provincial side representing Tuscany, they played with a pride and enthusiasm that was once the hallmarks of Connacht. Eric Elwood’s men left Stadio Lungobisenzio on Saturday humbled, and the irony was not lost on captain John Muldoon, who saw out 50 minutes in his return to action after a fractured arm in New Zealand.

“It was said before the game, ‘don’t disrespect them because we turn over teams which do that’. Today we didn’t respect them and our mental attitude wasn’t good enough. You have to be honest, we were nowhere near the races.”

Connacht may have been the better on paper, and, according to Cavalieri captain Lorenzo Giovanchelli also “better on the pitch”, but from the set-piece to their attacking game, they were less than clinical, even if hampered by the narrow pitch which helped the defensive side.

Connacht now face French outfit Bayonne at the Galway Sportsground on Friday needing to resurrect their European campaign, and Elwood has no doubt his side will recover.

“We were expected to win and win with five points – that was the pressure, and we didn’t deal with it very well. We have a proud tradition in Europe, and unfortunately we have lost a bit of credibility among ourselves and our supporters, and it’s just not good enough.

“Of course we will bounce back. We should have won, and we know we can bounce back, but we want to be above that. We don’t want a bad result and then a good result, we want consistency. It makes it harder going forward next week, and unfortunately it has dented confidence.”

At half-time Connacht had taken a 13-3 lead, all through Ian Keatley who grabbed a 30th-minute try, and two penalties, but they had made hard work of it, missing three first-half chances and failing to maintain possession through the phases. Their opponents, despite losing a man to the sin bin early on, were sufficiently robust, if a little undisciplined, in the tackle and at the breakdown to cause Connacht problems.

Connacht did improve in the second half and extended the lead to 18-3 when Bernie Upton drove over from a forward drive, but they never hammered home that advantage. Instead the home outfit wrested the initiative with a penalty to touch, and the result was a first European try for right wing Nicolo Tempestini with useful fullback Rima Wakarua adding the extras to his first-half penalty.

It gave the home side a huge fillip and they added another two penalties within eight minutes to cut the deficit to just two. But with Connacht finally maintaining possession and building the phases, they were rewarded with a Keatley penalty on 70 minutes and looked likely to scrape through.

However, disaster struck when the unfortunate Frank Murphy, whose direction had added impetus to Connacht, particularly at the breakdown, attempted a long overhead pass over Woulter Moore and the 6ft 8in lock scampered in with Wakarua converting to scupper Connacht’s expectations.

With two minutes remaining and attacking with urgency, Keatley had the chance to sneak it, but his attempted drop goal hit the upright. The concession of another penalty brought the curtain down on a poor day for Connacht at a time when Elwood’s reign appeared to have brought a new consistency and confidence.

CAVALIERI PRATO:R Wakarua; N Tempestini, D Majstorovic, S Rodwell, F Vezzosi; A Chiesa, P Patelli; L Poloni L Giovanchelli, G Bocca, L Beccaris, W Moore, L Petillo, F Cristiano, N Soqueta. Replacements: D Stefani for Bocca (48), A Lewis Pratt for Rodwell (53), N Belardo for Soqueta and G Marino for Poloni (67), A Neri for Giovanchelli (76), A Goti for Vezzosi (77).

CONNACHT: T Nathan; D Fanning, N Taauso, M Nikora, F Carr; I Keatley, C Willis; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Sweeney, M Swift, B Upton, A Browne, J OConnor, J Muldoon. Replacements: R Loughney for Wilkinson and B Faamausili for Sweeney (HT), M McCarthy for Muldoon (47), D Murphy for Flavin (50), F Murphy for Wllis (59), M McComish for Brown (66).

Yellow cards: Cavalieri, D Majstorovic (11m).

Referee: M Raynal (Fra).