Connacht the standout performer amongst the Irish provinces

Connacht's home win over Sharks in Galway on Saturday evening will breed life into the early part of their season.

After opening the game with dominance, despite a lack of scoreboard pressure from the territorial and possession advantages, Connacht slipped to a 27-7 scoreline, before working their way back into a winning position.

The mental strength and resilience that they’ll have earned from the comeback will stand to them going forward. A squad needs to build a story across the length of a season and last Saturday’s victory will be a memorable chapter.

There were a few aspects of Connacht’s game that saw them dominate in two different spells.

Their kicking game gave them a lot of early dominance and territory. Ironically, they just lacked enough possession in the Sharks half to allow them to convert that into scores, but the pressure that they built should have been rewarded if it weren't for a handful of errors.

Connacht gave away a cheap penalty for taking Jason Jenkins out in the air during a lineout which allowed the Sharks to get out of trouble. Discipline is a vital piece of the jigsaw when putting together your game plan. The Sharks should have been made to work for the chance to get out of the difficult corners that Connacht put them in.

Connacht were also disrupted in the breakdown a number of times. The Sharks counter rucked and got at Ben Murphy’s ball, they even managed a couple of turnovers on top of the slower quality ball.

Despite the free flowing distribution and rangy passes from Piers O’Conor and Mack Hansen, along with strategical kicks in behind from Ioane, O’Conor and Cordero, Connacht only managed one score in that period of dominance.

The score came in the third minute. Cathal Forde had one of his many