The Dragons got off to the better start of this encounter and outhalf Jason Tovey was unlucky when his 2^nd minute penalty rebounded off the posts. He made amends with a 7^th minute penalty as both sides struggled to come to terms with the slippy conditions and a high error count. Niall O’Connor slotted 3 points with a 40m kick shortly after to level things up and despite stealing a number of Dragons lineouts and some clean breaks from Johnny O’Connor, Tiernan O’Halloran and Brian Tuohy Connacht couldn’t convert their possession into points. When the Connacht defence was finally breached it took a covering tackle from Mike McCarthy to bring down Dragons centre Ashley Smith 12m out from the Connacht line. The Dragons were on the front foot though and after a succession of quick rucks prop Nathan Williams bundled over from close range to score the 1^st try of the game after half an hour. Tovey converted to leave the half time score 13 3 to the Dragons.

It only took a couple of minutes for Connacht to fire up their performance in the second half. The forwards won clean ruck ball with some big hits from Ray Ofisa, Ethienne Reynecke and Dave Gannon and it wasn’t long before the badckline were firing on all cylinders with line breaks from Henry Fa’afili, Eoin Griffin and Tiernan O’Halloran to name but a few. Eric Elwood kept the pace of the game flowing with replacements and after 50 minutes, with Dylan Rogers, Adrian Flavin and Ronan Loughney on the park the fresh legs showed. The forwards created the momentum and Tiernan O’Halloran sprinted down the touchline and offloaded to Eoin Griffin to touch down in the corner. Matthew Jarvis, just on for Niall O’Connor, nailed the kick and the Connacht resurgence had well and truly started. TJ Anderson and Paul O’Donohoe both came off the bench and after some deft hands from Gavin Duffy, Adrian Flavin and man of the match John Muldoon and some quick rucking led to captain Gavin Duffy diving in to score Connacht 2^nd try of the match and take the lead for the first time. Jarvis converted and though Connacht dominated the final 20 minutes and won a series of penalties they were unable to score a 3^rd try but ran out deserved 17-13 winners.

Next up for Connacht is an away trip to the Ospreys next Friday night.

Speaking after the match Head Coach Eric Elwood said he was happy with the 4 points but that there was more to come from this young team:

“We’re happy with the result again but a poor first half, never really got into the game and we lacked a bit of intensity in attack and defense and didn’t really show a buzz about ourselves”

“We went in 10 points down deservedly at halftime, then we got the 1^st try and it visibly gave the lads a lift, gave the supporters a lift and they got behind us, we kept playing and got the second score.”

“We made a few changes, got on top in the set piece and I thought the lads who came on did exceptionally well so all in all we’re happy with the result, a bit disappointed with some of the performance but fair play to the lads for showing great character to come back to win the game.”

All pictures (C) www.INPHO.ie/JamesCrombie