Connacht hold off Sharks for bonus-point win

After back to back defeats over Christmas, a bonus-point win comes as sweet relief to Connacht and Andy Friend.

The province had been expected to make light work of the traveling Sharks, who left the bulk of their first team and head coach Neil Powell back in Durban, due to the arduous travel arrangements in getting to Ireland. And while this performance won't go down in the ages, it's largely irrelevant when conditions are so difficult.

Nobody said that January at the Sportsground would be much fun, but it has its charms.

You can get all four seasons in one afternoon watching a Connacht home game, but this was 80 minutes of winter.

With the wind behind their backs in the opening half, Connacht put their score up in the first 40, and managed that lead after the break.

Tries from Conor Oliver, Cathal Forde and Tiernan O'Halloran built up a 19-0 buffer, with Forde securing the bonus point score on 55 minutes, and while they conceded two tries in the final quarter the result was never really in doubt.

There could have been a Connacht try inside five seconds, the visitors failing to deal with Carty's kickoff, which almost fell into the hands of Hansen in a move reminiscent of his try for Ireland at the Stade de France last February.

Playing with the considerable wind behind them in the opening half, Connacht dominated territory in a slow opening without ever really threatening to score, while a lengthy injury delay to Oisin Dowling, and multiple scrum resets punctuated a laboured first quarter of an hour.

The tactics from the visitors were obvious early on; get to half time in reasonable shape, by which point the breeze could be a 16th man. Not the most sophisticated idea, but we’ve seen worse gameplans in January Sportsground