Streetwise Connacht snatch it

Connacht 19Aironi 16

Rob Murphy at the Sportsground

THIS was almost the perfect win from a Connacht point of view, arguably outstripping a bonus point victory for the simple reason that Eric Elwood and co learned more from the 80 minutes on Saturday than any other Rabo Direct Pro 12 contest this season.

Character, belief, and a never-say-die attitude all shone through as Connacht won their third game in-a-row in this competition for the first time in nine seasons and jumped two places into eighth in the table in front of an official gate numbering 5,216.

A bonus point win was never on the cards anyway, Aironi may be bottom but they possess far too much international class in the likes of Ongaro, Marco Bortolami, Josh Sole and company to be overawed by a trip west.

They are a franchise on the brink of extinction because of financial pressures but they played with pride and passion here and, quite frankly, deserved a first ever away win in their second season as a club. It didn't come because Connacht have a streetwise edge to their play these days and are a hard team to shift.

The clock had ticked into the 77th minute when Rodney Ah You charged over after sustained pressure. Miah Nikora converted to level and no Connacht player or supporter was ready to accept their lot despite the fact that they had seemingly got out of jail, having trailed by 13 at the break and struggled to assert themselves.

They wanted more and got it with a penalty five metres inside their own half at scrum time while Luca Redolfini was in the sin bin. Young 21-year-old out-half/utility-back Matthew Jarvis was on the field at that stage. He was the only man with the range but his recent pedigree hardly suggested he was going to nail it.

The kick was so well struck that it landed on the dog track far behind the goal, the wind helped but the tall Welsh born, Irish qualified goal kicker had done most of the work with the very last kick of an odd encounter. He was enveloped and the Sportsground was bouncing

For Elwood, captain Gavin Duffy and all, this was a turning point. These type of games rarely fall Connacht's way. They struggled to put a second strong Treviso away in November in similar circumstances and one wondered what it would take for some composure to emerge in such scenarios.

John Muldoon led the comeback. It was a man mountain performance from the blindside flanker – he ripped balls from well clenched arms, he charged forward with ball in hand, pounded rucks, yet another towering display.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.