Warriors crumble to Connacht
Connacht moved above fellow strugglers Glasgow in the Magners League table after thumping the Warriors 37-8 at the Sportsground.
Last Updated: 18/02/11 9:40pm
Connacht moved above fellow strugglers Glasgow in the Magners League table after thumping the Warriors 37-8 at the Sportsground.
The hosts went into the half-time break with an 18-8 lead after Brian Tuohy and Gavin Duffy had both scored tries, with Hefin O'Hare touching down for Glasgow.
And with fly-half Ruaridh Jackson in the sin-bin, Connacht raced away in the early stages of the second half as Fionn Carr crossed before Tuohy added his second of the night. A penalty try in the 62nd minute completed the convincing victory.
Eric Elwood's side made a bright start to the contest, with Ian Keatley knocking over a penalty after a spell of possession had drew the visitors offside.
The fly-half missed a more difficult chance shortly afterwards but then made amends when he played in Tuohy, who used his strength to crash over.
But Glasgow provided an almost instant response as skipper Colin Gregor took a quick tap from a midfield penalty and, seeing an overlap on the right, fed the ball wide where Bernardo Stortoni produced the final pass for O'Hare to finish.
Connacht themselves would soon find a reply, however, as Keatley sent a grubber kick through with his weaker left foot for full-back Duffy to collect and score in the corner.
Deficit
Keatley added the extras but Jackson's only penalty of the night reduced the deficit. And Glasgow threatened once more in the lead up to the break as Robert Harley was hauled down a few metres out.
However, Keatley made it a 10-point lead in the 38th minute after Jackson was shown the yellow card for tackling Tuohy without the ball.
Shortly after the half-time interval, Keatley spotted some space and played in Carr to give the hosts some real breathing space with a well-taken third try.
And within four minutes Connacht had grabbed a bonus-point score and effectively killed the game off as prop Brett Wilkinson made a 20-metre break before passing to Keatley, who found Tuohy for a fine try.
Keatley added the extras on one of the tries to make it 30-8 and although Glasgow spent much of the rest of the match piling the pressure on their opponents, they could not overcome Connacht's stern defending.
In fact it was the Irish outfit that completed the scoring when their dominance at the set-piece was confirmed by a penalty try, with Rodney Ah You shining in the front row.
The sin-binning of Shane Monahan proved to be of no consequence as Connacht recorded their first ever season's double over Glasgow and moved up to 10th in the standings.
