Anscombe returns to steer Blues ship home
GARETH Anscombe came off the bench to guide Blues to a crucial win in their quest to obtain Champions Cup qualification for next season.
Anscombe returned to league rugby after a five month injury absence to create Owen Lane’s try and kick a vital ten points to ensure his side leap-frogged Connacht in the table.
Blues’ head coach, Danny Wilson said: “It’s our first double over them for three seasons and it’s really important for a European slot.
“Gareth is a quality player and we’ve missed his presence so it’s great to have him back – but I’m disappointed we gave away so many penalties, which allowed them too many field positions.”
Those positions enabled a strong Connacht pack to capitalise with two tries from replacement hooker Shane Delahunt from driving lineouts, but the Irish backs lacked the flair of their opponents.
Jarrod Evans, Matthew Morgan and Anscombe all threatened the visitors’ defence, who despite scoring four tries to three were undone by key refereeing decisions against them.
The most important of which made by PRO14 debutant referee, Craig Evans, came ten minutes into the second half when after the Connacht scrum had pummelled the home line, he chose to award Blues a relieving penalty instead of a penalty try for persistent infringement by the under pressure Blues’ pack.
From the resulting lineout, Nick Williams and Willis Halaholo broke out of defence before Eoin Griffin was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on and with the centre in the bin, Morgan took advantage with a clever run to score.
Connacht coach Kieran Keane said: “Some of the decisions were frustrating and the game was taken out of our hands.
“I’m not satisfied with our performance as we could have easily gone away with the five points, but we conceded too many soft points.”
Jack Carty and Jarrod Evans exchanged early penalties as Connacht had the better of the opening exchanges but the hosts took the lead with a wellcreated try from the industrious Olly Robinson.
First Halaholo ran strongly before feeding Macauley Cook, who made ground before Lane and Halaholo combined well to send the flanker over.
Halaholo then undid all his good work by telegraphing a pass, which Niyi Adeolokun easily picked off to run 45 metres to score.
Carty converted and added a penalty but a third
penalty from Evans was enough to give Blues a 16-13 interval lead.
After the restart it was all Connacht until the referee made his crucial call. They remained in contention with Delahunt’s first until Anscombe was brought on to steady the ship.
The fly-half thought he’d scored when he supported a 40-metre run from Tom James but the try was ruled out by prior blocking from No.8 Nick Williams.
But it was Anscombe’s half-break which provided Lane with the opportunity to score the hosts’ third.
With ten minutes remaining, Williams was sin-binned for shoving an opponent and in his absence, Blues conceded two tries, a second for Delahunt and one from skipper, John Muldoon.
However two late penalties from Anscombe saw the home side survive a nervy finish.