Although the scoreline ultimately flattered Connacht in that it offered scant recognition of the French side’s stout resistance for almost an hour, the fact remains that the visitors have not won away from home since last April and currently hover around the relegation zone of their domestic Top 14 championship. In the end, this represented another nightmare on the road for them, but, six minutes into the second half, it was the home side who were having the bad dreams when Montpellier edged into a 10-7 lead courtesy of a bizarre penalty try decision by the referee, Wayne Barnes.
Connacht had laid firm foundations playing into the strong wind when they took a 7-3 advantage into the interval. The critical try came after 10 minutes when their influential scrum-half, Chris Keane, dummied his way over after impressive approach play by his backs.
They had set out their stall straight from the kick off, with Christian Short’s catch setting in motion two minutes of solid possession as they worked their way half the length of the field to earn a penalty opportunity, which David Slemen missed into the wind. Nevertheless, they had laid a marker and their forwards proceeded to exert admirable control for the duration of the half, although Montpellier exerted two periods of substantial pressure, which required a Matt Mostyn tackle and a botched Alex Stoica pass to deny them apparently certain scores.
Connacht’s ascendancy had been gained despite being reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes by an early yellow card for winger Ted Robinson for some killing the ball on his own line.
If Connacht’s ball retention had been efficiently executed before the interval, Montpellier were every bit as effective on the resumption and a spell camped in the Connacht 22 yielded its reward, albeit in controversial circumstances when Mr Barnes awarded the penalty try for Connacht’s attempts to wheel a close-in scrum. There was no collapse and, even more strangely, it was the first put-in. Normally, penalty tries come after a series of set-piece infringements.
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Things were not going according to script and it took the pragmatic Slemen at fly-half to steer them out of troubled waters by extracting full anvantage from the elements with his line kicking.
His pinpoint efforts duly delivered for flanker Matt Lacey and No 8 Colm Rigney from lineout mauls and, within 15 minutes of a potential crisis, Connacht were comfortably in control at 22-10.
With Keane and Slemen dictating the trend at half-back, Connacht asserted total control in the closing quarter. Their cause was greatly helped by a corresponding breakdown in the Montpellier discipline and a higher error ratio. The visitors also suffered sin-binnings for centre Murphy Taele and No 8, Michael Macurdy.
In that context, Connacht were allowed to showboat. The extra space made by the Montpellier dismissals offered a licence for their backs to show their paces and winger Conor McPhillips and centre Keith Matthews (twice) blasted over for three more tries in the closing 11 minutes.
Connacht have shown a distinct improvement in form since early season and this success rounded off an impressive hat-trick of home victories in preceding weeks. They now need to carry this form forward to their closing pool game on Friday night, when they travel to Sicily to take on Catania, where victory will guarantee them a place in the play-offs.
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STAR MAN: David Slemen (Connacht)
Connacht: M Mostyn; T Robinson, J Hearty, K Matthews (M McHugh 74min), C McPhillips; D Slemen (P Warwick 74min), C Keane (T Tierney 74min); R Hogan (A Clarke 44min), J Fogarty (J Merrigan 74min), S Knoop, C Short, A Farley (M Swift 70min), J Muldoon, C Rigney, M Lacey (B O’Connor 74min)
Montpellier: D Bortolussi (F Benazech 70min); S Logerot, M Taele, A Stoica, F Charrier; R Lespinas, H Crane; S Petit (N Descamps h-t), N Grelon, C Baeocco, M Bert, M Gorgodze (S Buada 60min), M Durand, M Macurdy, C Mathie (J Vallee 60min)
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Yellow cards: Connacht: Robinson (13min)
Montpellier: Taele (51min), Macurdy (61min)
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Tries: Matthews (2), Keane, Rigney, Lacey, McPhillips
Cons: Slemen (3), Warwick (2) Pen: Slemen
Try: Penalty try Con: Bortolussi
Pen: Bortolussi
Referee: W Barnes (England); Att: 2,800
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