Connacht 19 Aironi 16IT IS a rare day when Connacht are the undeserving winners, but coach Eric Elwood is adamant that for all the times Connacht have been in the same position as Saturday's losers Aironi, he will take the four points gladly and move on.
Down 16-3 at half-time, Connacht stole their latest RaboDirect Pro 12 win with a Matthew Jarvis “wonder kick” from inside his own half on the stroke of full time, ensuring the Italian visitors failed to gain an elusive away victory before disbandment.
“We know what it is like,” says Elwood. “We probably didn’t deserve to win, they certainly didn’t deserve to lose, and that’s why it’s tough at times to take those. We should have beaten Leinster out here and Joe [Schmidt] tells me we were the best team, but he went home with the four points. We got the four points this time, so I am chuffed.
“We know we were very poor tonight, but to get a victory like that, we’ll take it any day of the week.”
If replacement Matthew Jarvis was the hero of the day, John Muldoon was the man of the match, lifting his side when it needed it most after a poor first half.
Young prop Denis Buckley held up his side of the scrum throughout, and replacement prop Rodney Ah You did what was asked of him, grabbing a 74th minute try that brought Connacht level before forging a late-winning late penalty from the scrum.
Aironi, with the wind at their backs in the first half, took control, and Connacht’s only points came from Miah Nikora’s 19th minute penalty in answer to outhalf Luciano Orquero’s opening drop goal. The Italians bossed the breakdown, were composed under the high ball, and centre Sinoti Sinoti’s hard running set up the opening try which lock Quintin Geldenhuys claimed after 24 minutes. Orquero was on target with two late kicks for a 16-3 lead with only Tiernan O’Halloran and Fetu Vainikolo, before retiring injured, offering anything in attack.
“If our best 40 minutes was against the Dragons two weeks ago, then this was probably our worst,” said Elwood.
“The lads knew it was unacceptable. There was no continuity, we couldn’t hold onto the ball, and it was not the type of tempo we want to play at.”
John Muldoon led the charge with an early blockdown, and although held back, he looked to have got the touchdown but was denied by first-time referee Ian Davies. However, it took a 60th minute penalty from Nikora before Connacht really found any momentum.
A stolen lineout forced another Nikora penalty before Connacht took advantage of replacement Josh Furno’s yellow card with Ah You bursting over the line. Nikora’s conversion drew the sides level before Jarvis stepped up to send his last-gasp penalty through the posts, giving Connacht their first three-in-a-row since 2002.
CONNACHT: G Duffy; T O'Halloran, K Tonetti, H Fa'afili, F Vainikolo; M Nikora, F Murphy; D Buckley, E Reynecke, R Loughney, M Swift, M McCarthy, J Muldoon, R Ofisa, G Naoupu. Replacements: E Griffin for Vainikolo (27m), A Flavin for Reynecke (HT),J O'Connor for M Swfit (47m), R Ah You for Loughney (55m), M Kearney for McCarthy (65m), M Jarvis for Duffy (67m), P O'Donohoe for Murphy (69m).
AIRONI: T Tebaldi; G Toniolatti, S Sinoti, M Pratichetti, G Venditti; L Orquera, T Keats; M Aquero, F Ongaro, L Romano, Q Geldenhuys, M Bortolami, N Cattina, S Favaro, J Sole. Replacements: L Redolfini for Romano (61m), J Furno for Geldenhuys, N Williams for Sole, and N Olivier for Orquero (all 70m). Referee: I Davies (WRU).
