Connacht vs Biarritz - 07/12/12 Galway SS Red But?

Parks makes up for his earlier miss with a drop goal, 10-6 to Connacht

FFS the garryowen should be outlawed as far as Connacht are concerned. Parks launches one into their 22, bad enough tactic as far as I'm concerned, but insult to injury, it results in McKeon getting a yellow card.

10-9 to Connacht at the half, but they'll start the 2nd half a man down.

Connacht do well to play Biarritz to a 3-3 draw while McKeon was off so it's 13-9 to Connacht.

Sounds like things are building at the Sportsground. Will they have the legs to keep hings going?

Connacht pull a converted try ahead at 16-9 with half an hour to play.

Not sure about taking Marmion off this early for POD, has he taken a knock?

Drop goal with the advantage

19-9

What is with kicking away possession with the team up 7 and 10 minutes to play. Fortunate for Parks he has been bailed out with the team holding up the Bairritz maul for a scrum to Connacht.

Parks again makes up for it with another drop goal to put Connacht up 19-9!

Though it won't count for much it would be nice to deny them a losing bonus point.

Well done lads

Serge looks bewildered in the stand

Sounds like it was a true team effort. Outstanding win!

22-14 win by the way.

J Harris hit most/all his lineouts.
Scrum kept its own at the least
McCarthy was everywhere

Connacht looked to spread the ball and didnt take Biarritz on in 10 man rugby

Good stuff

So incredibly proud

Hell yeah!! Couldn't see the game, a bunch of Ulster lads came in wanting to watch there one against Northampton so fair's fair. Got to see the Fetu try though. So proud of the lads and their effort. This keeps us in the loop and if we beat Zebre at home and away we have a good chance of getting in the Amlin after. So proud of the guy's performance!!

awesomeness!

Dan Parks was The Man. Never stopped cajoling and encouraging and dictated the game the way everyone expected Yashvili to do. We made no costly errors, which was what we've been looking for since the Leinster game. A few guys falling off tackles, but the ball retention was very good.

We were the better side from about 25 minutes in. No arguing when you out score them in both halves. Ref was poor, we got screwed in the first half and looked to me like they got screwed in the second. The touch judges were no help to him either.

Finally, has to be said that Biarritz were no Edinburgh. Balshaw was ok, Ngwenya and Yashvili weren't at the races and their forwards were beaten up. I watched the big dog warming up at half time for them, and he didn't look remotely fit, but was clearly sent on to give them a bit of spine. Didn't make much difference. Nice to see him put on the back foot after having a go at Marmion for being a cheeky pup though.

Crowd was a bit thin I thought. Maybe about 7000. Atmosphere was great, but for sheer drama and tension followed by release it wasn't like the Quins game last year. This one was very comfortable. Mildly annoying that we mucked up the lineout at 80mins and allowed them the try. It's going to be interesting next week!

Fine win and to win by 8 with Yachvilli's missed conversion was great. A bp for Biarritz would have been undeserved and taken the shine off the win a bit. If we can get some kind of a result next week (even a losing bp) to edge them over the two games we'll give ourselves a shot at the Challenge Cup which would be great. Biarritz could lose interest for the January games as they attempt to keep in touch with the play off spots in France.

I was seriously cheesed off with us over the last two weeks for failing to perform and making stupid errors in the bread and butter Rabo games (even though we were well short handed in the pack last week) but I always knew we could win this one if we got ourselves right. I put it down for the shock of the year in the pre-season expectations thread but in the end it wasn't much of a shock. Once Vainikolo got the try Biarritz looked beatable. We defended stoutly but gave away a few silly penalties but to see Yachvilli miss 3 kicks is rare.

Biarritz will be a different animal at home next week but it was a big win and gives our season a shot in the arm that was badly needed.

It was hard to pick a man of the match, there were many fine performances in the pack in particular. Front row all did well including Buckley off the bench, Harris-Wright is starting to nail down the no.2 jersey. Kearney impressed me again, McCarthy made a few handling errors but got through an amount of work. Back row performed much more cohesively this week. With White, Swift and Naoupu to come back and Reynecke back on the bench tonight we'll have more genuine options when everyone is fit.

Marmion was much improved on last week, Parks did the business bar one missed kick and the ball that went dead in the final few mins. For years we were almost allergic to drop goals but to step back and kick the dg for 10-6 when nothing was on was a vital score. Vainikolo was superb, McSharry and Poolman are improving. There's more to come from them you'd hope. Tiernan O'H was improved on his awful display last Saturday but given his talent he still has plenty to work on. Henshaw is an exciting attacking talent and performed well tonight.

Good night for us but we need to push on now, lots of games coming in quick succession.

Attendance was 6583.

Those wot wasn't there seriously missed out.