Friend: ‘To stop a five-game losing streak in that fashion is fantastic’
You need to go back to September 2001 for the only other time Connacht held a team scoreless in the league but that was against a Caerphilly side out of their depth in the competition.
What makes this result so remarkable is that the opposition are also in the battle for a League knockout spot and one of the Heineken Champions Cup places on offer.
No wonder then that Connacht coach Andy Friend was thrilled with this impressive win at the Sportsground on Saturday night, while more seasoned supporters will recall the province’s worst defeat in the competition came against this opposition when they were hammered 58-0 by Cardiff in 2008.
The Blues were just a point adrift of Connacht prior to this one and while Friend’s men still need to go to Cardiff as well as home and away encounters with table-toppers Edinburgh, this win really puts them in the driving seat in their quest for top flight European rugby.
“First and foremost, it snaps a five-game losing streak,” said the Australian. “To stop it in that sort of fashion is fantastic. We want to reach the knockout stages and we want a home quarter-final.
To not give Cardiff a point, and for us to get the bonus point, will have an impact at the end of the season. “We play Edinburgh twice over the course of the next few months.
“They are ahead of us. Scarlets are ahead of us, we play them once, here in the Sportsground. And we have got to play Munster again. It is all in our control but we have got to make sure we keep delivering performances like that, if not better.”
The first of those Edinburgh encounters comes up on Friday night in Murrayfield and Connacht will head there with a pep in their step after this display with Dave Heffernan, released from Irish camp to play Saturday, superb, while Jack Carty controlled the game throughout from out-half.
Connacht led 15-0 at the break with Heffernan capitalising on Cardiff’s woeful lineout to dash in for the opening try after an overthrow on 27 minutes.
Carty converted and then set up Peter Robb with a neat grubber with his left foot which the centre collected and got over in the right corner. Replacement prop Denis Buckley set up John Porch for the fifth try of his maiden season at the Sportsground ten minutes after the restart.
Cardiff, minus half a dozen on Six Nations duty, didn’t manage to get into the home 22 until the 57th minute and even then they turned it over with Robb releasing centre partner Kyle Godwin with a dash from 80 metres to secure the bonus point.
“I was pleased with the pressure we placed upon them when we didn’t have the football,” added Friend.
I haven’t looked at the stats yet but I can think of two or three tries that came off their turnovers.
“It was our pressure that got us the football and we were able to react to that.”
Scorers for Connacht: Tries: D Heffernan, P Robb, J Porch, K Godwin; Pen: J Carty; Cons: Carty (3).
CONNACHT: T O’Halloran; J Porch, K Godwin, P Robb, M Healy; J Carty, K Marmion; P McAllister, D Heffernan, F Bealham; U Dillane, G Thornbury; P Boyle, C Fainga’a, J Butler.
Replacements: J Maksymiw for Thornbury (35), D Buckley for McAllister (49), D Robertson-McCoy for Bealham (57), C Blade for Marmion (57), T Daly for Robb (59), S Delahunt for Heffernan (62), E McKeon for Boyle (65), C Fitzgerald for Carty (65), McAllister for Butler (68), Butler for McAllister (76).
CARDIFF BLUES: D Fish; J Harries, R Lee-Lo, G Smith, H Amos; J Tovey, L Williams; R Gill, L Belcher, D Arhip; F Paulo, J Ratti; J Turnbull, O Robinson, W Boyde.
Replacements: B Thomas for Lee-Lo (31, HIA), Lee-Lo for Thomas (40), S Andrews for Arhip (40), S Davies for Paulo (40), K Dacey for Belcher (48), N Williams for Boyde (48), Boyde for Robinson (49, HIA), C Domachowski for Gill (50), L Jones for Williams (60), R Edwards for Fish (60), Thomas for Smith (65).
Referee: Stuart Berry (South Africa).
