Connacht 29 Pau 7
Connacht will take a first-leg lead to France next weekend following four tries against Pau in this afternoon's Parker Pen Challenge Cup second-round clash in Galway.
Michael Bradley continued his squad rotation policy and dropped regular out-half Eric Elwood to the bench.
However, his calming influence was missed in the early stages as Connacht conceded a try after five minutes.
Right-wing Rida Jaouher touched down during a spell of pressure for the home scrum with captain David Aucagne adding the conversion for a 7-0 lead.
Out-half David Hewitt, just five days short of his 24th birthday, hit back with two penalties, the first from 40 metres, to pull Connacht within a point on 18 minutes.
They deservedly took the lead four minutes later as their back line swung play from right to left, stretching Pau before former England Under-18 back-row Michael Swift crashed over in the left corner.
Hewitt missed with the touchline conversion and also failed narrowly to add the extras into the wind after prop Dan McFarland's 33rd-minute try as Connacht edged the first half 16-7.
Pau suffered a setback with the sin-binning of number eight Bruno Bordenave four minutes into the second half before a straight forward penalty from Hewitt put Connacht 12 points in front.
A third try from number eight John O'Sullivan put the result beyond doubt on 58 minutes with substitute Eric Elwood's conversion hitting a post before going wide.
Replacement scrum-half Conor O'Loughlin set up Connacht's fourth with a surging midfield break before offloading for former Ireland international Matt Mostyn to score with two minutes remaining.