Connacht beat Cardiff to complete perfect campaign

European Challenge Cup:

Cardiff (7) 19

Tries: Lloyd, Young 2 Cons: Thomas 2

Connacht (14) 28

Connacht’s defeat of Cardiff in the European Challenge Cup put the Welsh side’s chances of progressing to the knockout stages in jeopardy.

Josh Murphy, Joe Joyce, Byron Ralston, and Matthew Devine scored the Irish province’s fourth bonus-point win to take the top spot in Pool One with the most points.

Connacht will advance to the final at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in late May by finishing as the top seeds in the knockout stages.

Ireland’s centre Bundee Aki, who performed almost flawlessly in almost all of the visitors’ attempts, gave Connacht an inspiration.

To reach the last 16 in April, Cardiff must finish in the top four of the pool, which will leave them third with seven points.

Matt Sherratt’s side will be hoping they are not overtaken by Cheetahs and Perpignan, who are both on six points.

Fourth-placed Cheetahs travel to face Lyon on Saturday, while fifth-placed Perpignan will be in Italy to play bottom side Zebre on Sunday.

Both Cheetahs and Perpignan will be able to move above Cardiff with a draw or two of their losing bonus points.

For the first time this season, Ben Thomas made his first appearance at fly-half for Cardiff.

Although Thomas is typically a center, Warren Gatland has chosen him to play for Wales’ second-ranked team in the Six Nations.

In two Tests against Australia in the summer of 2024, Thomas played fly-half for Wales, but he reverted to center for the three defeats in November.

15 players were sidelined for the Connacht game in Cardiff, including Wales trio Josh Adams, James Botham, and Taulupe Faletau, who is set to face the Six Nations.

Strong players from Ireland, including Finlay Bealham and Aki, were brought on by Connacht.

Connacht turned in more clinical as Cardiff put on early pressure, allowing lock Murphy to canter over with a fantastic disguised Aki pass.

Rhys Barratt’s storming break gave Cardiff the motivation to start front-row colleague Lloyd.

Conor Oliver, a Connacht flanker, was shown a yellow card for a deliberative knock-on, so Cardiff made a storming start to the second half.

After gliding over to level the scores, his opposite number Young, who is eight, laid the ground with a sharp break.

Two consecutive attacking lost line-outs hampered Cardiff’s effort to capitalize on their numerical advantage. Connacht were the welcome recipients of Cardiff’s set-piece shortcomings.

Fly-half Ioane struck a post with a penalty attempt, but Cardiff wing Gabriel Hamer-Webb knocked on set up the scrum foundation for Connacht’s third try.

Once more, Aki’s silky handling abilities allowed wing Ralston to stroll over.

Young crossed for his second goal in the left-hand corner to give Cardiff a man’s face.

Before Thomas missed the touchline conversion, he exchanged passes with Wales scrumhalf Ellis Bevan and his attempted chip soared into his hands.

Connacht captain Cian Prendergast scored the bonus-point try by setting up Devine’s replacement scrum-half with a spectacular break.

A late knock-on prevented Cardiff from scoring a late try that would have earned them two losing bonus points.

By coming within seven points of Connacht, Cardiff could have used a late, difficult penalty to ensure at least one losing bonus point.

In the first half, they took our legs away. That’s probably where the game went, although we did have our chances.

We were disappointed that we didn’t receive a try or two points at the end, but we’ll wait to see how the other outcomes turn out this weekend.

Connacht head coach Pete Wilkins:” It’s always a tough place to play here. I’m delighted that the pool games resulted in a complete sweep of bonus points.

It’s significant and puts us in good shape if we can continue to win.

Replacements: Efan Daniel, Danny Southworth, Rhys Litterick, Rory Thornton, Seb Davies, Johan Mulder, Callum Sheedy, Cameron Winnett.

Connacht: Santiago Cordero, Chay Mullins, Piers O’Conor, Bundee Aki, Byron Ralston, Josh Ioane, Ben Murphy, Peter Dooley, Dave Heffernan, Finlay Bealham, Josh Murphy, Joe Joyce, Cian Prendergast (capt), Conor Oliver, Paul Boyle.

Replacements: Eoin de Buitlear, Jordan Duggan, Jack Aungier, David O’Connor, Sean Jansen, Matthew Devine, JJ Hanrahan, David Hawkshaw.

Sin-bin: Oliver 42

Referee: Morne Ferreira (SARU)

Assistant referees: Aimee Barrett-Theron &amp, Griffin Colby (SARU)