Connacht 22 Harlequins 30:THERE WILL be more days like this, as opposed to the heart-breaking yet self-inflicted defeats Connacht were guilty of last season.
This defeat can be viewed as progress, simply because Eric Elwood’s warriors produced a coherent, attacking philosophy in an impressive attempt to topple the English champions.
But Harlequins have climbed to a new level since January’s 9-8 defeat in Galway. After historic victories in Thomond Park, Toulouse and Twickenham, Conor O’Shea’s platoon were desperate to put a tick beside the Sportsground box.
There are immediate lessons to be gathered for Connacht. For starters, if a ravenous grizzly bear shuffles into your back garden, don’t poke him with a twig. The pre-match entertainment harked back to the sides’ previous meeting and the headline in the programme (see All in the Scrum) was unnecessary provocation.
This gargantuan English pack were already coming west in search of a brawl. The local crowd of 8,191 didn’t need geeing up either; it was a 6pm kick-off and the Clan terrace was already in a raucous state. All the place needed was a reason to unite their voice into one guttural roar.
Step forward Dave McSharry.
The 22-year-old, of Templeogue extraction, was unable to squeeze through the Leinster bottle-neck of centres but on this performance he has undoubted value for Irish rugby in the future.
Harlequins potential Achilles heel, outhalf Ben Botica, had already settled by slotting an early penalty – Frano’s son, he looks like his father – when Connacht, with a strong wind behind them, inched into Quins territory. When big number eight George Naopu was smashed by two Quins forwards – a recurring and gruesome scene on the night – scrumhalf Kieran Marmion zipped quick ball away from the breakdown to Dan Parks.
The Scotsman has undoubtedly brought a place-kicking security out west but it was his delicious skip pass that had McSharry splitting the best defensive line in England for a seventh minute try.
There followed a period of penalty swapping as Botica, seamlessly covering for the injured Nick Evans, profited from Quins dominant scrum platform. Size will always matter in this department.
Parks did land four penalties in the opening half hour with Willie Faloon’s work on the floor having a major say in Jerome Garces’ decisions.
The score that made it 19-9 to Connacht was the best passage of play they’ve produced all season. It started with fullback Robbie Henshaw soaring to catch a Quins re-start over his head. Fetu’u Vainkolo shimmied laterally then straightened through a gap before veteran work horses John Muldoon and Michael Swift got among the carries.
The Sportsground was humming. But something else was needed to inject the virus of doubt into Quins collective mindset. The balance of power shifted irrevocably on 29 minutes when Garces whistled for a Connacht knock on, pulling back an old fashioned foot rush out of their 22. From the scrum the brilliant Danny Care came alive, exposing an unforgivably vacant blind side to race clear for the first of two tries.
Connacht desperately needed to make it to half time without conceding again but the additional six stone James Johnson had on Denis Buckley ensured the Connacht scrum was bulldozed two minutes before the interval, and when Jordan Turner-Hall was held just short, Care burrowed over.
There was even time for Botica’s fourth penalty – he finished with 20 points – to make it 24-19 at the turn.
Connacht players should have been hospitalised for shell-shock but whatever occurred in the changing room prompted a passionate start to the second-half, which earned another penalty that Parks nailed.
Game on? Actually, game over. Quins set up camp near the Connacht 22 and the enormous power of men like Olly Kohn, George Robson, Maurie Fa’asavalu and Nick Easter allied by a stiff wind ensured there would be no respite.
Such was the control, O’Shea and head coach John Kingston only felt the need to dip into their bench late on.
We go to the bench when we need to,” O’Shea explained. “These preordained substitutions, we don’t need to do that. The guys want to play rugby . . . What’s the point in change for change’s sake when the pictures were good. Every time we went down for a scrum we knew we were going to cause some damage. Ben Botica played excellently at fly-half. The bench is there if you feel you need to change something. I felt we were in control in a hostile place. When it is a bit frenetic, which it was, putting some one out there into that is sometimes not the right thing.”
It proved the right decision. Connacht simply couldn’t get out of their own half with Botica nailing insurance penalties in the 56th and 64th minutes.
No hint of a bonus point for either side but Harlequins have taken control of Pool 3.
Scoring sequence: 4 mins: B Botica pen, 3-0; 6 mins: D McSharry try, 3-5; D Parks con, 3-7; 10 mins: B Botica pen, 6-7; 13 mins: D Parks pen, 6-10; 15 mins: B Botica pen, 9-10; 17 mins: D Parks pen, 9-13; 25 mins: D Parks pen, 9-16; 27 mins: D Parks pen, 9-19; 30 mins: D Care try, 14-19; 38 mins: D Care try, 19-19; B Botica con, 21-19; 40 mins: B Botica pen, 24-19. half-time. 43 mins: D Parks pen, 24-22; 55 mins: B Botica pen, 27-22; 63 mins: B Botica pen, 30-22.
CONNACHT: R Henshaw; E Griffin, D McSharry, F Vainikolo; D Parks, K Marmion; D Buckley, A Flavin, N White (capt); M Swift, M McCarthy; J Muldoon, W Faloon, G Naoupu. Replacements: J O’Connor for W Faloon (55 mins), E McKeon for M Swift, J Harris-Wright for A Flavin, B Wilkinson for D Buckley (all 64 mins), M Fifita for E Griffin (65 mins), R Loughney for N White (67 mins), M Nikora for M McCarthy (76 mins).
HARLEQUINS: M Brown; T Williams, M Hopper, J Turner-Hall, S Smith; B Botica, D Care; J Marler, R Buchanan, J Johnston; O Kohn, G Robson; M Fa’asavalu, C Robshaw (capt), N Easter. Replacements: T Guest for M Fa’asavalu (67 mins), C Matthews for O Kohn (72 mins).
Referee: J Garces (France).
