Adeolokun’s early hat-trick sees Connacht finish Pool 5 in style

Niyi Adeolokun scored a first-half hat-trick as Challenge Cup Pool Five leaders Connacht ended the group campaign with a win over Oyonnax.

Niyi Adeolokun scored a first-half hat-trick as Challenge Cup Pool Five leaders Connacht ended the group campaign with a 50-14 win over Oyonnax.

Bundee Aki, Tiernan O’Halloran, Matt Healy and Thomas Farrell also went over for Connacht, who were awarded a penalty try, too.

The Westerners had already booked their place in the quarter-finals.

Elsewhere, Adam Radwan scored a hat-trick of tries as Newcastle made it six wins from six in Challenge Cup Pool One after a 33-19 win over Enisei-STM.

Federico Giliberti went over for an early try that Aleksandr Budychenko converted to give the hosts an early 7-0 lead, but Newcastle rallied and tries from Mark Wilson, Radwan (two) and Toby Flood, with the former England fly-half converting three times to give the Falcons a 24-7 half-time lead.

Anton Sychev crossed to get the home side back into the game before Radwan completed his hat-trick and Mikheil Gachechiladze added a late consolation for the Georgian side.

Dragons edged into second place in the pool on points difference after beating Union Bordeaux Begles 33-17.

Elliot Dee, Cory Hill, Ashton Hewitt, Lloyd Fairbrother and Pat Howard scored their tries and they must now wait to see if that is good enough to qualify for the quarter-finals.

London Irish boosted their own faint hopes of qualifying as a best-placed runner-up with a 24-17 victory at Krasny Yar.

Tom Fowlie scored a brace of tries and Matt Williams and Ben Loader also crossed but the Exiles remain reliant on other results going their way.

Zebre beat Agen 38-30 with both teams already eliminated, while Worcester’s game in Brive was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch and was switched to an evening kick-off in Tulle.