Connacht dent Blues’ title hopes

IN a game that could have gone either way, Connacht were forced to accept a draw against a side touting title hopes.

Cardiff should have sneaked it at the end, but two missed penalties and a turn-over inches from the line were perhaps justice for Connacht who had produced one of their better performances at the Galway Sportsground in this season’s Magners League.

The Blues had travelled west in the hopes of maintaining their momentum for a tilt at the title, and they now find themselves 12 points behind Leinster, although with games in hand. However Connacht, having done Leinster this favour, see their hopes of catching the Dragons slip further away.

“While it is still mathematically possible, we just have to keep plugging away. We are used to this battle and we now have a home fixture against Glasgow to maintain that momentum,” says Connacht coach Michael Bradley.

“In terms of where we want to go, it would have been better to win, but given that Cardiff had two kicks under the posts, a draw is a good enough result. It was a tight enough game at the break and then we created a couple of chances to close the game out, but on balance a draw might be good enough.”

CONNACHT: G Duffy, D Yapp, J Hearty, M McHugh, C McPhillips, P Warwick, C Keane, B Wilkinson, A Flavin, S Knoop, M Swift, A Farley, J Muldoon, R Ofisa, C Rigney.

Replacements: D Slemen for McHugh (18m), J Fogarty for Flavin (55m), R Hogan for Knoop (56m), Browne for Swift, (67m).

CARDIFF: B Blair, T James, T Shanklin (cpt), M Stcherbina, C Czekaj, N Robinson, M Phillips, G Jenkins, G Williams, T Filise, B Davies, R Sidoli, S Morgan, R Sowden-Taylor, M Lewis. Replacements: A Powell for Morgan, T Riley for James, T Rhys Thomas for Williams (all 66m).

Referee: P Allan (Scotland).