Celtic League/ Connacht 33 Llanelli Scarlets 19: Maybe it was the brilliant sunshine that enveloped the Sportsground, but on Saturday there only seemed to be light ahead for Connacht. They did their stuff on the pitch in recording a fourth successive win in Galway, and midway through it unveiled a cheque for €375,000 from the Government toward their new floodlighting system. Halleluiah.
Better late than never. The vexed question of Connacht's floodlights has been dragging on for a decade or so and now. Suddenly, they plan to have them in place by the end of April.
Thanks to the fixture dishevelment caused by the Welsh conversion to the Powergen Cup, Connacht don't have another home game until April 15th but then have three in May - all pencilled in already for 6.30pm on Fridays as part of rugby/greyhound double-headers.
The possibility of a near-permanent switch to Friday nights is an attractive one, not least when you think all four of their AIL clubs kicked off simultaneously on Saturday.
A reasonably healthy crowd of 2,000-plus did see Connacht maintain their faint hopes of qualifying for the Heineken European Cup with this impressive and utterly deserved win.
Alas, Leinster and Munster let them down by losing to the Dragons and Glasgow, theoretically Connacht's most catchable rivals for that last play-off spot.
Strictly by the bookmakers' odds, the least likely Irish winners of the three in action on Saturday were Connacht. Leinster and Munster were missing their Irish frontliners but still had eight and seven internationals respectively in their starting line-ups, while Connacht (facing the highest-ranked Welsh side) had only one.
While Llanelli themselves were missing their Welsh squad members, as coach Gareth Jenkins conceded, they have a big-enough squad to cope better than they did here. And though they are relative bargain hunters themselves, their New Zealand centre Regan King, for one, wouldn't exactly be in Connacht's budget.
Embarrassed by their defeat to Catania, Connacht coach Michael Bradley admitted they had a point to prove.
"We just didn't want to leave another result go," said Bradley, who sees the games against Leinster and the Borders as opportunities to accrue further points.
"For us playing Leinster in Donnybrook or wherever is always a big match in itself, and there won't be much motivation needed to get Connacht up for that one."
For much of a fairly evenly matched if slow-burning first half, Llanelli looked to have the sharper cutting edge, even if they committed far more handling errors in possession.
Working a try from deep through what Bradley conceded was naive defending when Dafydd James drew the last two men in putting Darren Daniel away from just inside halfway, the Scarlets earned a 16-12 half-time lead when their most assured multi-phase attack ended with Adam Jones's overhead pass putting King over in the corner.
That said and done, the intensity of the Connacht pack had been impressive, none more so than John Muldoon, in more than matching Llanelli for hard-earned yards.
Paul Warwick, in his first start since December 27th, gave Connacht plenty of width, while Darren Yapp, making an impressive comeback from a 10-week lay-off, and Keith Matthews probed dangerously.
The third-quarter turnaround reflected well on Bradley, his assistant Eric Elwood and the Connacht think tank. Where before the Llanelli defence had maintained a well-organised red line, they lost their shape and fell off tackles.
Chris Keane changed tack by going blind, and Colm Rigney attacked the inside shoulder with some good footwork and accelerated in from 40 metres.
From a recycle, Warwick eyed up and handed off replacement prop John Davies to typically and opportunistically score under the posts for a 21-point haul.
Having marshalled the winning position, Warwick gave way to Dave Slemen who sliced through himself within four minutes of his arrival.
"We were more clinical in the second half," said Bradley. "The key for us was we'd missed a few lineouts and also we didn't give them an opportunity to run back at us, that we found our touches and if we put the ball in behind them we'd have somebody on them to tackle them immediately. That meant they didn't get too much loose ball and we were able to put pressure on them defensively."
"We fractured so easily twice," lamented Jenkins of Llanelli's defensive lapses. "There was a real lack of cohesion in our performance.We're stuttering at the moment, but in saying that, I thought Connacht today, genuinely, were what they are. They fronted up major, they had a great attitude and intensity, and they pressurised us."
Llanelli had enough ball to get back into the game but with the exception of Gavin Quinnell, who put his team on the front foot with some aggressive ball-carrying, the impact of Connacht's bench was noticeably better.
With games away to Leinster and the Borders next, followed by the European Challenge Cup quarter-final trek to Newcastle,Connacht could yet have a massive month in May.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 5 mins: Hercus pen 0-3; 7: Warwick pen 3-3; 13: Warwick pen 6-3; 17: Daniel try 6-8; 23: Warwick pen 9-8; 28: Warwick pen 12-8; 34: Hercus pen 12-11; 40 (+5): King try 12-16 (half-time 12-16); 41: Rigney try, Warwick con 19-16; 50: Warwick try, con 26-16; 58: Bowen pen 26-19; 60: Slemen try, con 33-19.
CONNACHT: M Mostyn; D Yapp, A Mailei, K Matthews, C McPhillips; P Warwick, C Keane; R Hogan, J Fogarty, A Clarke; D Gannon, A Farley (capt); J Muldoon, B O'Connor, C Rigney. Replacements: J Merrigan for Fogarty, M Lacey for O'Connor (both 54 mins), D Slemen for Warwick (56 mins), T Tierney for Keane (59 mins), M McHugh for Mailei (64 mins), A Gallagher for Rigney (76 mins), D McFarland for Hogan (79 mins). Sinbinned: Merrigan (78 mins).
SCARLETS: B Davies; T Selley, D James, R King, D Daniel; M Hercus, C Stuart-Smith; M Madden, A Gravelle, C Dunlea; I Afeaki, A Jones; D Jones, G Thomas, A Popham. Replacements: J Davies for Dunlea (32 mins), G Bowen for Hercus (half-time), L Davies for Stuart-Smith, V Cooper for Afeaki (both 56 mins), G Quinnell for D Jones (70 mins). Not used: M Rees, G Evans. Sinbinned: King (23 mins).
Referee: Graeme Hannah (SRU).
