Connacht 47 Benetton Treviso 8
A seven-try blitz over Treviso on Saturday has put Connacht into a much better place heading into their back-to back Champions Cup fixtures with Premiership side Wasps.
Two successive Guinness Pro 12 wins and Connacht are now “ready to go, that is what we needed,” says coach Pat Lam.
Treviso put up little resistance but, having lost to the Italians last season, Lam was suitably impressed with the manner of the performance, particularly given the absence of a handful of key players still to come into the reckoning.
“When you look at the quality of guys still to come back in, it’s exactly what I wanted. It’s a step up and we are excited by it. Wasps are running hot in the premiership, but this is what we worked unbelievably hard for last year so we can play this sort of rugby. We can take a lot of confidence out of these two games.”
Connacht had the bonus point wrapped up by half time to bag their fourth win in defence of the Pro 12 title, and the only disappointing aspect was the concession of a late try late from the scrum, and a yellow card to right wing Cian Kelleher for tackling his former Leinster teammate McKinley in the air.
In his first start former South African Lions outhalf Marnitz Boschoff showed his prodigious line-kicking, but he now is doubtful having suffered a shoulder injury, forcing Connacht to finish with 14 players. The game also produced a new back row combination of Nepia Fox Matamua, fellow Kiwi Jake Heenan and captain John Muldoon, which “went really well”.
“They are very clever rugby players. I have been waiting for a long time since I brought them here [Matamua and Heenan] to play them both together. It’s great to see them out there, both fully fit, not only competing against each other, but also working together.” And with new recruit Fijian Nualia Dawai “looking the goods and learning the game” and Sean O’Brien back from injury, Lam is relishing the “selection headaches” in the back row.
Despite an early Italian penalty from McKinley after three minutes, Connacht established territorial control through Boschoff in his first start, and hooker Tom McCartney, after marshaling the maul, burst over from second phase, fed by scrumhalf John Cooney to kick-start Connacht’s revenge for losing to the Italians last season.
Twelve minutes later, Danie Poolman, a late replacement for Matt Healy, was sent through by Nepia Fox Matamua after a sweet passing move. With Treviso prop Pietro Simone Ferrari yellow carded, Connacht grabbed another two tries from McCartney and Denis Buckley. Cooney converted all four for 28-3 half-time lead, and then scored the fifth after 49 minutes. Two more tries followed – replacement hooker Dave Heffernan touching down from a forward drive, and replacement outhalf Jack Carty completing the rout.
With both backs and forwards sharing the scoring blitz, and the maul starting to work, Lam says Connacht are “ not yet perfect, but better and improving”.
“It’s important to be multifaceted. You can’t be off the top the whole time, and we needed to get better in other areas of attack. It’s important to keep other teams guessing.”
Connacht: T O'Halloran, C Kelleher, B Aki, S Ili, M Boschoff, M Healy, J Cooney, D Buckley, T McCartney, C Carey, Q Roux, J Cannon, N Fox-Matamua, J Heenan, J Muldoon (cpt).
Replacements, D Heffernan for McCartney, C Blade for Cooney ( 53m ), S O’Brien for Heenan (58), JP Cooney for Buckley, D Robertson McCoy for Carey, R Parata for Aki (all 60m), E McKeon for Muldoon (62m), J Carty for O’Halloran (68m).
Treviso: D Odiete, A Esposito, M Tagicakibau, A Sgarbi (cpt), L Sperandio, I McKinley, T Tebaldi, A De Marchi, D Giazzon, S Ferrari, M Lazzaroni, M Fuser, A Steyn, R Santamaria, M Barbini.
Replacements, A Pratichetti for A Esposito 39, F Zani for De Marchi (45m), L Bigi for Giazzon and E Gori for Tebaldi (both 53), V Flammini for Barbini (55m), T Allan for Tagicakibau (61), N Quaglio for Zani (69), M Zanusso for Ferrari (69m).
Referee: I Davies (WFR).
