Connacht have won their opening two league fixtures of the season for the first time in six years after a 13-11 win over the Scarlets.
The Irish side followed up an 11-9 win against Benetton Treviso in Italy last weekend with a hard-fought success over Nigel Davies' men.
Scarlets held a 6-0 advantage approaching the interval thanks to two Dan Newton penalties, while Matt Jarvis had missed with his first shot at goal for the home side.
Jarvis, though, made amends two minutes before the break to give Connacht a foothold in the game, although the sides could have gone in level had he not missed his next attempt on the stroke of half-time.
Scarlets scored the first try of a nip-and-tuck contest early in the second period, lock Aaron Shingler burrowing his way over following a line-out close to the Connacht line. Newton missed the conversion.
Michael Swift and Rob McCusker were both shown yellow cards for their respective sides, but Connacht were the ones to profit with a try from right wing Mark McCrea following great work by ex-Leeds man, Henry Fa'afili. Jarvis added the extras to leave Connacht trailing by a single point.
Niall O'Connor, on the field as a replacement for Jarvis, turned out to be Connacht's match-winner with a 69th-minute penalty to send the 3,408 strong crowd home happy.
The scorers:
For Connacht:
Try: McCrea
Con: Jarvis
Pen: Jarvis, O'Connor
For Scarlets:
Try: Shingler
Pen: Newton 2
Connacht: 15 Gavin Duffy (capt), 14 Mark McCrea, 13 Eoin Griffin, 12 Henry Fa'afili, 11 Tiernan O'Halloran, 10 Matthew Jarvis, 9 Frank Murphy, 8 George Naoupu, 7 Ray Ofisa, 6 John Muldoon, 5 Mike McCarthy, 4 Michael Swift, 3 Rodney Ah You, 2 Adrian Flavin, 1 Ronan Loughney.
Replacements: 16 Ethienne Reynecke, 17 Brett Wilkinson, 18 Stewart Maguire, 19 TJ Anderson, 20 Johnny O'Connor, 21 Paul O'Donohoe, 22 Niall O'Connor, 23 Brian Tuohy.
Scarlets: 15 Daniel Evans, 14 Lee Williams, 13 Rhodri Gomer-Davies 12 Gareth Maule, 11 Liam Williams, 10 Dan Newton, 9 Ruki Tipuna, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Josh Turnbull, 6 Rob McCusker, 5 Dominic Day, 4 Aaron Shingler, 3 Rhys Thomas, 2 Emyr Phillips, 1 Iestyn Thomas (capt).
Replacements: 16 Kirby Myhill, 17 Phil John, 18 Simon Gardiner, 19 Lou Reed, 20 Johnathan Edwards, 21 Rhodri Williams, 22 Aled Thomas, 23 Adam Warren.
Referee: Marius Mitrea (FIR)
Assistant Referees: Leo Colgan, Peter Roche (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: John Cole (IFRU)
TMO: Dermot Moloney (IRFU)
Comments
Irishlad says...
Go on the lads!
Posted 18:15 10th September 2011
leinster_goy says...
why a surprise? connacht were near full-strength against a weakened scarlets team. and if i remember rightly, connacht won this fixture last season.
on another note, well done connacht
Posted 17:52 10th September 2011