Warriors’ fightback cut short by Healy
WORCESTER head coach Carl Hogg said he was pleased to come away from the Sportsground in Galway with a bonus point after a match which was ruined by gale-like conditions.
Worcester never looked like preventing a ninth away loss in a row in the Challenge Cup but they finished well and Australian Jonno Lance crowned his first start with a late penalty to secure a bonus point.
Hogg said: “It was a good first-half. We were very physical. Connacht had the wind behind them and at 8-0 down I felt we were in the contest. We had shown a huge amount of physicality in defence.”
Connacht’s interval lead came courtesy of Eoghan Masterson crowning his first game as captain with a try after seven minutes after a good break from deep by full-back Tiernan O’Halloran.
But a Jack Carty penalty going into the second quarter was all they had to show for their continued dominance.
Worcester were defending with discipline and handling anything which was thrown at then, leaving them in a strong position when they turned around to have the elements at their back.
Hogg added: “Through that first ten or 15 minutes of the second-half it was going to plan.
“We were camped down in their 22 but couldn’t turn that possession into points. At 8-5 we had got the game back and I still felt we had a reasonable foothold in the game.
“But you have to credit Connacht playing back into that wind. Their ball retention was excellent and that’s where they won the game.
“They had a fortuitous kick-through that bounced for them and they scored off it.”
Connacht defended after the restart but a try from winger Josh Adams after 53 minutes, after No.8 GJ van Velze made the hard yards, got Worcester back in contention.
Both teams struggled to master the strong wind and the game was punctuated
with numerous errors throughout the contest.
But then Matt Healy pounced when a grubber from Carty bounced up nicely for him and he skipped past full-back Chris Pennell to race in from the right and score under the posts. Carty’s conversion made it 15-5 going into the final quarter.
But Connacht did not push on from there and never looked like getting a bonus point.
Indeed, a tight finish was guaranteed when Lance pulled back a penalty six minutes from time to garner a bonus point for Warriors.
They never looked like closing the gap after that, however, and Connacht will head into the December jousts with Brive on top of Pool 5, although coach Kieran Keane was far from happy.
“It wasn’t a good performance, it was good to get the win but nothing more than that,” he said.
“It would have been tragic had we lost it but we were only average compared to what we were over the last couple of games. We have a lot of ground to make up but we will take the win,” he said.