Connacht 03 - 18 South Africa

at The Sportsground, Galway

A batting first half performance from the black shirted Connacht side restricted the much vaunted South Africans to a paltry three point lead at half time, courtesy of a solitary Butch James penalty. The visiting side were made to look pretty average in stages as Connacht looked the better organised and committed side on a beautiful evening for rugby in Galway. 

Apart from the scrum which frequently buckled under extreme pressure from the heavyweight Springbok pack, Connacht competed extremely well against a side that less than a week ago had managed over a hundred points against fellow Word Cup bound side Namibia. At the back of the scrum, Rigney did some superb work in rescuing dreadful ball off a retreating or sideways moving scrum,often picking up and getting Connacht back to the gain line. Ray Ofisa and John Muldoon weren't slow in putting in the big hits on any Bok players silly enough to wander around the fringes. Andrew Farley and David Gannon ruled the roost in the lineout, as they terrorised the opposition ball and always looked assured on their own. Gannon was absolutely marvellous, encapsulated by a wonderful tap tackle on flying winger Ndungane as the big second row got down low to stop a breakout by South Africa after a turnover.

The big surprise and bonus for Connacht was the performance of UCD prop Brian McGovern who faced the eye of the tiger and not only came away with enormous credit but with invaluable experience for later on in his fledgling professional career, how many 21 year old front rowers will have faced the Springboks and come away a little bit bloodied and scarred but unbowed to tell the tale? Brett Wilkinson gave another full hearted performance in the Connacht jersey and between these two youthful tyros Adrian Flavin showed that he has everything in his armoury to be the No.1 hooker in this squad with immaculate thowing in, being involved heavily at the breakdown and always looking to do something positive with the ball in the lose.

With a host of new and inexperienced players lining out in the backline it was perhaps unsurprising that Connacht didn't score any tries against a solid South African defence. Michael Bradley is going to have some tough decisions to make during the season ahead in selecting between Tim Donnelly & Andy Dunne at Out-half, both performed admirably given the occasion. Conor McPhillips belying his rustiness at scrum-half turned in a man-of-the-match performance, and there was no let up from Tom Tierney when he replaced McPhillips. Ofisa Treviranus showed strongly in defence making some typically Samoan like tackles and carrying the ball up strongly and Peter Durcan was sure footed at full back.

Referee George Clancy appeared to handle the game well in an refreshingly unfussy style, in particular the nasty incident in the second half where Bok hooker Bismarck du Plessis who was seen to drop an elbow into the face of Conor McPhilips. Whether the citing officer is as leniant to the World Cup squad member is doubtful. In fact a red card was warranted by the incident, but Clancy probaly appreciating that South Africa were clearly frustrated with the manner of their performance  decided to give the Hooker ten minutes to cool off instead. 

On the night regardless of the scoreline it is Connacht who will have learned most about themselves from this encounter, and performances like these will test even the stronger Magner League sides whether at home or away to the full. So another promising season commences for Connacht, can this be the season in which they deiver.

Touch judges: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland), Leo Colgan (Ireland)