Connacht make no mistake

Connacht 27

OPTIMISM is abound in Connacht again after a second win on the bounce in the RaboDirect Pro12, the first time they’ve managed that all season.

The westerners notched four tries on Sunday to take the maximum haul of five points from their second trip to Parma this season. It completed a clean sweep of victories over their old foes in all competitions.

For Pat Lam and his team, this will be a confidence booster, but nothing more than that at the moment, as the target of three in a row must be on their minds with an understrength Treviso next on the list.

The east of Italy side bounced back from a 70 point drubbing in Swansea two weeks ago with a much improved display on Sunday at home to Ulster losing 14-12 in a tight battle, but Connacht will be targeting a win and a four try bonus point might be in the back of the minds of some supporters.

The reason for even contemplating a third win and a second successive bonus point stems from Connacht’s dominance in the scrums. The pack yielded all three first half tries in this contest and two came directly from the scrum. They will target Treviso in that area and if they can play a pragmatic game around that, tries should follow.

Heading into Sunday, Connacht were beginning to feel like the fixtures were starting to fall their way. They were facing a Zebre side with ten players involved at Six Nations level with Italy. Former Connacht back Troy Nathan was one of a number of players called into the squad as cover from the Italian club league. He started at ten and failed to shine.

The first try of the came from a lineout five metres out. Connacht were leading through a Dan Parks penalty at that point and Jason Harris Wright hit Michael Swift at the front and he transferred possession to Rodney Ah You. With Eoghan Masterson and John Muldoon working in tandem with the big prop, Connacht drove over to stretch the lead to 8-0 after Parks was just off with the conversion.

Try number two came from a stunningly impressive scrum five metres out. The Connacht dominance in the set piece was well established at this stage but the pack drove Zebre back in one sweeping movement with Muldoon keeping control at the base until the line and Kieran Marmion touching down for his second try of the season. Parks converted for a 15-0 lead.

It was the control that made the difference on that score and power made the difference on try number three as a crumbling home scrum left referee Ian Davies with no choice, but to award a penalty try, which Parks converted to give his side a 22-0 lead. Denis Buckley (man of the match last week) and Rodney Ah You (man of the match this week) were totally dominant and remain a potent weapon.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.