European Challenge Cup/Connacht 62 Amatori Catania 17: If Amatori Catania, the pride of Sicilian rugby and the most humbly-ranked team in Europe, were hoping to form some kind of brotherhood with Connacht, the great underdogs of the professional game, they were sadly let down on Saturday afternoon.
The hapless Italians were destroyed by Michael Bradley's men in an exercise of limited worth, other than giving Connacht a badly needed fun day at the office. They became the first team to run in 10 tries for the province, and so set themselves up nicely for this week's visit to Montpellier, the scene of a notoriously bloody encounter last winter.
Connacht gave good value for money to the modest crowd that visited the Sportsground to witness a stark reversal in the team's fortunes this season, but afterwards Bradley agreed he had learned little.
"Well, other than don't try and run the ball wide in the rain," he said breezily.
It will take a lot more than a succession of poor Celtic League results to faze the Cork man and, as ever, he gave a fair and irreverent assessment of his charges.
"The thing we wanted most to do was to build phases, and we seemed incapable of doing that for a long period of the game. It was scrappy, a lot of poor handling errors. We were probably a little bit over adventurous early on. But we copped ourselves on, and in the middle section of the game we had a blast of eight tries. Like, once we started running at them directly, they seemed to get out of our way."
And that is not a kindness he expects the French to bestow on Connacht. Bradley's first task after the final whistle was to find out how Montpellier had done in Worcester. Their 31-19 defeat leaves them without a bonus point and they will undoubtedly be in grim mood on Friday night.
"Ah, it's a big game," admitted Bradley. "Much the same as last year, I expect. I mean, today, we were so superior in the scrum that we were actually over-working it instead of pressuring on the angle and caused ourselves a few problems. That won't be a problem against Montpellier, because they have a huge pack and they are very physical."
Connacht have never flinched from hard engagement. However, this year's version has a fast but relatively light three-quarter line, and their ability to stand up to Montpellier will be vital.
They had the speed and skill to completely boss the Sicilians, with Paul Warwick showing the way by dashing through the Catania 22 untouched after just four minutes.
The Australian outhalf is fast and unpredictable, and mixed the wonderful with the alarming in the early stages here, gifting Catania fullback Francesco Fala Pappalardo the ball in open country after eight minutes.
A man with a name like that deserves a try and much more besides, but Warwick recovered to drag him down short of the line and he coughed up the ball for scrumhalf John Grasso to finish.
After 20 minutes, the score was stuck at 7-5 and there seemed to be a slight danger Connacht might not get motoring. But although Catania were honest, there was not much substance there. Darren Yapp finished off a pass intercepted from Diego Vidal with great style, and, after that, strong, direct running from big men like Colm Rigney and John Muldoon flattened the resistance.
Centre Keith Matthews and Connacht's lightning wingers, Conor McPhillips and Ted Robinson, made the most of the open spaces as the Italian line of resistance dissipated.
Matt Mostyn, perhaps the Connacht leader now, had an enjoyable day at fullback, cleaning up Barry Irving's high punts with ease and joining the Connacht attacks with late, direct bursts from deep which the Italians found hard to cope with.
Chris Keane, who gave great supply in the first half, took over at number 10 after the break as Warwick was groggy from the effects of a smashing tackle on Italian centre Benjamin de Jager after just 11 minutes.
Catania did show a bit of rugby, surprising Connacht with a gorgeous try on 30 minutes when de Jager's delicate chip behind the Connacht defence set the three-quarter line going and they moved the ball with flair.
"It was a beautiful try, that," mused Bradley.
That he could appreciate the aesthetics said much about the contest. The handsome score line glossed over basic errors.
On Friday night, it will be back to basics. Montpellier will be intent on making a stand, and every point, scrape and gouge is going to count.
CONNACHT: M Mostyn; C McPhillips, D Yapp, K Matthews, T Robinson; P Warwick, C Keane; R Hogan, J Merrigan, S Snoop, C Short, A Farley, J Muldoon, M Lacey, C Rigney. Replacements: C O'Loughlin for Warwick (h-t), D Gannon for Short (45 mins), C Venter for Merrigan (46 mins), D McFarland for Hogan, A Clarke for Snoop, B O'Connor for Lacey (all 53 mins), R Riordan for Robinson (54 mins).
AMATORI CATANIA: F Fala Pappalardo; E Viassolo, A Romagnoli, M Estomba, B de Jager; B Irving, J Grasso; A de Bonis, G Alvarez, S Levaggi, M Privatera, JP Lagarrique, M Vinti, D Vidal, A Krancz. Replacements: M Geraci for de Bonis (h-t), M Gravagna for Fala Pappalardo, N Wargon for Vinti (both 49 mins), S Carbone for Krancz 68 mins).
Referee: S Davey (England)
