Carty find his range at last to stun Wasps
THE Connacht fairytale, a big feature of 2016, continued apace at the Sportsground when they clinched an extraordinary added time victory over a battling Wasps side who must surely have felt they had nicked a win.
With just a couple of seconds left Guy Thompson, who contributed massively off the bench, made his first mistake when he was penalised for failing to release as Wasps perhaps unwisely tried to wind down the clock rather than remain positive.
After winning uncontested clean possession Connacht rumbled in textbook style for replacement Naulia Dawai, who produced a storming brief cameo off the bench, to plunge over.
That made it 18-18 with a touchline conversion to follow by Jack Carty who is averaging barely 50 per cent with his place kicks this season. All eyes turned to the young fly-half who looked very relaxed as he lined up a kick which frankly nobody expected him to land. Next thing we knew he had slotted it straight through the middle.
The win puts Connacht level on 13 points with Wasps and Toulouse in a pool that because of the presence of Zebre will probably see two teams advance into the quarterfinals. With Zebre at home in their next match, Connacht should go into their sixth-round match against Toulouse with 18 points already in the bank.
Wasps, meanwhile, are still in pretty good shape with the key for them being the home match against Toulouse in round five. Win that and only Zebre will stand between them and qualification.
Both sides looked to attack ball in hand from the whistle which, in unusually benign conditions for Galway, resulted in entertaining if occasionally frantic fare.
Wasps made a nervous start and found themselves pinned back before Carty opened up with a penalty. Connacht enjoyed the best of the early exchanges but it was Wasps who struck next, Thomas Young busting up the middle to send Nathan Hughes charging for the line.
The newly capped England No8 was dragged down just short but managed to lay back for Joe Simpson to pick up and dive over for a converted try.
John Muldoon's men rallied to dominate the last ten minutes of the half despite losing O’Halloran to the bin and the departure of the dangerous Matt Healy with a bad cut.
Initially Wasp seemed to have survived, at one stage shunting Connacht off their ball at a scrum five to earn an invaluable penalty but with the last play of the half Carty drilled an excellent crossfield kick out to the far left hand corner where replacement wing Danie Poolman touched down. Carty added the extras from the touchline just to put an extra spring in Connacht’s step as they went down the tunnel.
The second half saw Wasps gradually take control, with Gopperth landing two penalties to level the scores at 13-13 before Jack Bassett scored what seemed like a crucial try. Gopperth couldn’t convert however and Connacht are a dangerous side who don’t know when they are beaten. As they were soon to demonstrate gloriously.