RUGBY AMLIN CHALLENGE CUP Connacht 20 Montpellier 10: IT IS surely only a matter of time before the Sportsground becomes a voodoo word across the rugby enclaves of southern France. On a vintage Galway rugby night – wet and blustery – Montpellier became the latest team to discover the place can be a perishing venue. Literally. Several of the French players looked pretty shivery in the aftermath.
These nights can do that to visiting teams. As game plans go, it worked perfectly for Connacht. They kept it tight and controlled in the first half and eased out of sight after the break, with Liam Bibo and Fionn Carr skipping through to finish a pair of well-worked tries to put the game beyond the French.
They ride high in their group with what ought to be a victory lap in Madrid to come next weekend.
“We won the toss and made that decision,” coach Michael Bradley said afterwards. “We felt when we played in Montpellier there was not much between the sides and we felt that we would have to win it over 80 minutes. We wanted to carry the ball and to get the referee on our side. So at half-time it was 8-3 to penalties in our favour. That was a telling factor in the game as well.”
Bradley is not the kind of coach to puff a cigar in press conferences but he was justifiably pleased with how the team had executed the game plan. He singled out the first half as among the best his team had produced in terms of discipline and their assured handling.
“Yeah, I was delighted. It was one of the best halves of rugby that we played. Then to come out and finish the job was great. The guys stuck to the task, their defence was terrific. In fairness to Montpellier, they are great maulers of the ball and it was very hard to nullify that but once we could do that, we felt that game would be ours.”
This was a tricky game. After the long lay-off, the abrupt return to west of Ireland conditions rendered it a notoriously difficult evening for playing. Lineouts were tough, finding touch was at times impossible and kicking penalties was no joke. Adrien Thomas, the French scrumhalf, missed two penalties from inside the 22 when the game was still alive.
Ian Keatley had more success, clipping a low penalty to open the scoring and landing a brilliant conversion of 56 minutes on Bibo’s try. That score had been coming. The Connacht pack forced the Montpellier scrum back on a good drive and Frank Murphy had time to pick the isolated Bibo out.
Connacht were sharp and up for this match, with Ray Ofisa outstanding. Once they fell behind, there were precious few signs Montpellier could respond – winger Thierry Brana made serious ground along the right touch line after taking a wonderful off-load from Marc Giraud but it was a night when the Connacht defence looked rock solid.
John Muldoon thieved a vital ball on 62 minutes as the home team went sniffing for the killer score and it came courtesy of Carr, who came drifting in from the wing in search of ball and swerved through the Montpellier centres after Conor O’Loughlin supplied Keatley with possession.
In the last 10 minutes, the game was effectively over. There were no home quibbles with the score – 3-3 – at half-time. Connacht were penned into their own half by the local elements as much as by French pressure. Playing into the driving gale, they stuck rigidly to the policy of keeping the ball, twice running it from their own goal line.
Montpellier applied a sustained period of pressure 30 minutes into the match, pressing the Connacht try line through seven phases of possession after taking a clean line out before turning the ball over. Connacht though, found themselves penned on their own line with possession and played painstakingly slow but daring possession rugby, which eventually won them a relieving penalty. It was high-risk stuff but it worked.
Connacht’s chances were few and hooker Seán Cronin was at the heart of those. Twice he linked up with the ever-adventurous Murphy to take a couple of glorious passes. The second of those came at him like a bullet – he faced the choice of catching the ball or getting concussed by it. Any hope of an attack was soon swallowed up by an eager French defence.
Niva Ta’auso had a half chance on 36 minutes but he left the ball behind him in his eagerness to exploit the space and was whistled for a dubious knock-on. Still, Connacht only visited Montpellier’s scoring territory twice in the half and managed to knock over a penalty on one of those occasions.
Having limited Montpellier to the same score, they cannot have been too unhappy at the break and the second half unfolded perfectly: Montpellier’s 79th-minute try was just about deserved. But Connacht can travel to Madrid for next week’s game in jubilant form.
“We have done some very good work in the Challenge Cup and it was important to finish the job here,” Bradley said. “Madrid should be the easier task to accomplish a clean sweep of the group. We will go with a view to gaining the bonus point and winning and we’ll see what happens after that.”
The coach smiled wryly when it was put to him Ulster – or even Leinster – might provide the opposition for the home quarter-final. “They might. So maybe people should buy their tickets in advance.”
CONNACHT: Nathan, Bibo, Ta'auso, Matthews, Carr, Keatley, F Murphy, Wilkinson, Cronin, Morris, Swift, Upton, McCarthy, Ofisa, Muldoon. Replacements: Wynne for Matthews (72), Nikora for Keatley (72), O'Loughlin for F Murphy (63), Loughney for Wilkinson (69), Hagan for Morris (41), Naoupu for Upton (69). Not Used: Flavin, Browne.
MONTPELLIER: Alcalde, Thiery, Smith, Rees, Brana, Schutte, A. Tomas, van Staden, Caudullo, Douglas, Macurdy, Gorgodze, Bost, Chkhaidze, Giraud. Replacements: Castell for A. Tomas (70), Leleimalefaga for Douglas (63). Not Used: Rofes, Demarco, Matadigo, Doumayrou, Max, Figallo. Sin Bin: Chkhaidze (44), Smith (74).
Referee: Peter Allan(SRFU).
