European Shield: Connacht's winning ways continue

Connacht 18 Narbonne 6

Connacht's great start to the season continues to get better and better as they opened their European Shield campaign with a thoroughly deserved victory over a Narbonne side beaten by Harlequins in last season¹s final.

It was the first time Connacht have played a home match under floodlights and the non-stop driving rain made open rugby impossible at Ericsson Park. But it didn¹t matter to Connacht who kept it in tight and showed far greater discipline than their French visitors.

Not for the first time the Connacht hero was out-half Eric Elwood who kicked six difficult penalties from as many attempts. He kicked two in the opening half to give them a 6-0 interval lead and added a third shortly after the restart.

The powerful Narbonne pack started to make their presence felt but they kept their line intact and in the end all Narbonne could muster were two penalties under the posts from fly-half Cederic Rosalen.

But Elwood kept putting distance between them and landed three more penalties to seal a great win.