Connacht - 15 Border Riviers - 17: A third defeat on the trot leaves Connacht firmly planted at the foot of the Celtic League table and, on this evidence, it is difficult to envisage them hauling themselves away from the basement position any time soon.
After four years as the competition's whipping boys, Reivers have strengthened their squad astutely, in contrast to Connacht, who haemorrhaged a succession of players in the close season and have failed to come up with adequate replacements. The outcome was a first ever away win in the competition for the Scots.
Few could have guessed, however, that Reivers had improved so much they could give Connacht a numerical advantage and still win, but that's what transpired after their Samoan number eight Semo Sititi was sent off in the eighth minute for flooring scrumhalf Tom Tierney with a haymaker at the base of a scrum.
The visitors dug deep after that and it is a measure of Connacht's incompetence on the day that their numerical supremacy was rarely brought to bear.
It was noticeable deep in first-half injury time when number eight Colm Rigney powered over for his side's second try after five successive scrums on the visitors' line. But by then the Borders pack was down to six with the sinbinning of former Ulster secondrow Mark Blair.
That put Connacht 15-7 ahead at the break, but such was the strength of the gale at their backs that it was clearly insufficient, even against 14 men.
Their woes had been compounded with the 22nd-minute loss of outhalf Paul Warwick. His replacement, David Slemen, promptly missed a simple penalty and a kickable conversion before the break.
Those misses were ultimately vital as for all of Borders' possession in the second half and a well-worked Nikki Walker try, it was not until a yellow card offence by Michael Swift presented the influential Charlie Hore with an easy three points 13 minutes from the end that the visitors made their dominance count.
After that it was backs to the wall for the Scots but, despite 16 minutes of solid Connacht possession, the home side never managed to engineer a penalty let alone show the penetration needed to create a try.
Connacht had been similarly bereft of ideas with the wind behind them in the first half and Hore's superb individual try in the 21st minute perfectly illustrated what separated the sides.
In contrast, Connacht's first try was crude, flanker Matt Lacey claiming his customary touchdown on the back of a close-in lineout maul.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 7 mins: Warwick pen 3-0; 21: Hore try, con 3-7; 26: Lacey try 8-7; 40 (+4): Rigney try, Slemen con 15-7. 55: Walker try, Hore con 15-14; 67: Hore pen 15-17.
CONNACHT: M Mostyn; C McPhillips, D Yapp, J Downey, K Matthews; P Warwick, T Tierney; D McFarland, J Fogarty, S Knoop, C Short, A Farley (capt), M Swift, C Rigney, M Lacey. Replacements: D Slemen for Warwick (22 mins), C Keane for Tierney (half-time), R Hogan for McFarland (59), C Venter for Fogarty, J Muldoon for Swift (both 77), McFarland for Knoop (80). Sinbinned: M Swift (68).
BORDER REIVERS: C McRae; N Walker, B McDougall, G Law, S Danielli; C Hore, C Cusiter; P Thomson (capt), S Scott T McGee, M Blair, O Palepoi, J Dalziel, S Sititi, A Miller. Replacements: S Moffatt for Law, R Ford for Scott (both half-time),C Stewart for Blair (46), W McEntee for Miller (61), G Cross for McGee (70). Sinbinned: M Blair (40+1). Red card: Sititi (8).
Referee: N Owens (Wales)
