European Challenge Cup / Connacht 22 Worscester 21: Never say die. In Connacht, the old cliché carries a lot of meaning. After a bruising and largely luckless season, Michael Bradley's team would have been forgiven for writing this match off as another lost opportunity.
They could have consoled themselves that Worcester were too strong, too deep, too monied. But, in front of a disbelieving Christmas crowd at the Sportsground, they somehow found the gumption and nerve to manufacture three phases of play deep in injury time, a brave push that ended with Matt Lacey rumbling over the try line, unchallenged, over by the graveyard corner of the field. It was heroic, defiant stuff and precisely the lift the ailing western side needed.
"That has to be the best win we have had in my time at Connacht," said Michael Bradley.
It was easy to see why. Bradley has claimed bigger scalps but in the context of Connacht's demoralising Celtic League campaign, this had enormous significance.
"We had spoken about this beforehand. We had been in situations before against Harlequins and Sale where we had played quite well but just didn't close them out in the last few minutes. So the way in which we responded to that situation was very pleasing."
It was, as Bradley acknowledged, far from being the smoothest Connacht performance of recent seasons, and the travelling Warriors support must have flown out of Galway airport yesterday morning wondering quite how they lost the match.
For the first half-hour they bossed proceedings, robbing the first three Connacht lineouts, running the ball wide from inside their own 22 and making the muscle of their pack count in the close exchanges. Two early decisions to kick penalties for touch instead of racking up points were either ambitious or arrogant, and for all their possession, the Warriors were only 10-6 up at the half-hour.
Then, in typical Connacht fashion, the home team made the most of a broken situation when Colm Rigney hoovered up an untidy lineout. A lovely deft exchange between Keith Matthews and John Muldoon created space for David Slemen to attack (Warriors outhalf Shane Drahm had just been sinbinned) and Conor McPhillips finished brilliantly in the corner.
Paul Warwick came in at half-time, with Slemen dropping back to fullback and Matt Mostyn beefing up the three-quarter line, an alignment Bradley had favoured prior to Warwick picking up an injury last week. Having been at the mercy of the Worcester scrum in Sixways, Bradley had replaced the jump specialist Christian Short with Andrew Gallagher shortly before kick-off. It cost some lineout possession but gave them a foothold in the scrum.
"We had to take a bit of a gamble; there was no point in just letting Worcester play us as they had done a week ago," he reasoned.
The second half was interrupted by a long injury delay to treat Colm Rigney, a big loss for the home team. But Connacht forced more possession after the break and Warwick kicked them into a 17-13 lead. Worcester continued to attack with menace but Matthews, Chris Keane and the excellent John Fogarty delivered some conspicuously big hits.
After 62 minutes, though, Drew Hickey surged through the Connacht wall and a fine skip-pass from Drahm sent Thinus Delport in for the try.
A penalty from the fussy if consistent Monsieur Darriere gave the visitors a four-point cushion. And with four minutes left, a lacerating run from England old boy Andy Gomarsall had Connacht completely exposed but the scrumhalf elected to go it alone with two team-mates to his outside. It was a decision he would regret.
Connacht drove forward in defiance, living on the injury time owed to Rigney. Their march was far from seamless and a maddening knock-on by Warwick looked to be their last chance. But Warwick is nothing if not plucky and was central to the bold, sweeping phases of play that took them deep into Worcester territory needing a try.
It was thrilling stuff, Gomarsall flinging a pass into touch in trying to slip Delport into a clearing.
Connacht mauled and battered the Worcester pack at will, with Kai Horstmann, their powerful enforcer, watching from the sinbin. Eventually, the pressure told and three clean passes, dictated by Tom Tierney, set up flanker Lacey for a deserved rumble for glory.
Afterwards, a crowd gathered outside the Connacht dressingroom window as the team sang a full-blooded version of The Fields of Athenry. The Sportsground was glowing and warmly anticipating the visit of Ulster on New Year's Eve.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 mins: Drahm pen 3-0; 15: Slemen pen 3-3; 21: C Fortey try, Drahm con 10-3; 38: Slemen pen 10-6; 40 (+1): McPhillips try 11-10 (half-time 11-10); 52: Warwick pen 14-10; 54: Drahm pen 14-13; 56: Warwick pen 17-13; 62: Delport try 17-18; 68: Drahm pen 17-21; 80 (+1): Lacey try 22-21.
CONNACHT: M Mostyn; T Robinson, J Hearty, K Matthews, C McPhillips; D Slemen, C Keane; R Hogan, J Fogarty. S Knoop; A Gallagher, A Farley; J Muldoon. M Lacey, C Rigney. Replacements: Short for Gallagher (39 mins), P Warwick for Robinson (half-time), M Swift for Rigney (44 mins), T Tierney for Keane (77 mins). Sinbinned: Matthews (18 mins), Keane (53 mins).
WORCESTER: N Le Roux; U Odouza, T Lombard, S Whatling, T Delport; S Drahm, M Powell; T Windo, C Fortey, C Horsman; T Collier, C Gillies; K Horstmann, P Sanderson, D Hickey. Replacements: D Rasmussen for Odouza (60 mins), A Gomarsall for Powell, L Fortey for Horsman (both 65 mins), E O'Donoghue for Collier (82 mins). Sinbinned: Horsman (13 mins), Drahm (38 mins), Hortsman (78 mins).
Referee: E Darriere (France).
