Matt finish puts gloss on win for in-form visitors
KINGS 14 CONNACHT 31
MATT HEALY marked his return from injury with a try as Connacht cruised to a bonus-point victory in Port Elizabeth. Healy, the province’s record try scorer, recovered from a foot injury totake his place on the left wing and crossed just before the break for Andy Friend’s men. Fellow wing Cian Kelleher and replacement flanker Paul Boyle also breached the Kings’ line while the Connacht pack squeezed a penalty try out of the hosts at scrum time. There was a further injury boost for Friend with promising lock Gavin Thornbury getting through 20 minutes of work in the final quarter. Thornbury has been out of action for the best part of two months with a shoulder injury but the 25-year-old replaced James Cannon on the hour mark and got through plenty of work. Connacht are shorn of the Bundee Aki’s services for their next three games — taking in the European double header against Perpignan — with the Ireland centre granted leave to return to his native New Zealand to get married. Still, the western province were still able to field an exciting midfield combination of Tom Farrell, who was invited to train with Ireland at Carton House earlier this month, and Kyle Godwin, the former Wallabies centre. Yesterday’s win sees Connacht move up to third in Conference A ahead of next Saturday’s meeting with the Cheetahs at Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein. Jack Carty fired Connacht into a 3-0 lead after three minutes and the fly-half, who went home with the man-of-the-match award, added the extras to Kelleher’s opening try eight minutes later. The Kings replied with a try from full-back Masixole Banda before the visiting pack earned a penalty try from their utterly dominant scrum. Healy then went over in the corner following a brilliant strike play involving scrum half Caolin Blade and full-back Tiernan O’Halloran to make it 24-7 at the break. Ntabeni Dukisa crossed for the Kings in the 51st minute but replacement flanker Boyle had the final say for Connacht.