Borders had looked on course to progress to the quarterfinal as they defended a four-point lead with only four minutes left.

But they threw away 76 minutes of good work by handing Connacht’s outside half Mark McHugh two penalty chances, which he gratefully snapped up.

Borders’ preparations had been rocked when veteran lock Doddie Weir was forced to pull out of the team minutes before the kick-off with a bout of flu.

Then scrum-half Chris Cusiter was taken off with a wrist injury after just a minute’s play.

Scott MacLeod replaced weir, while veteran Gary Armstrong came off the bench to fill the number nine berth.

Borders shrugged off the double setback to break the deadlock with a Gareth Morton penalty.

But they were set back on their heels as former Ireland marksman Eric Elwood bagged a hat-trick of goals in the space of six minutes.

The penalty swapping continued with another strike by Morton, underlining the scrappy nature of the contest.

Another flurry of kicks, including an Elwood drop-goal, took the score to 9-15 – but then the Borders carved out a great try, despite having Campbell Feather in the sin-bin.

Wing Andy Turnbull raced into the Connacht half and claimed the first vital touch after winning the race to his own chip.

Craig Moir then marked his return from injury with another score just after the restart, Morton adding the goal to give Borders a six-point edge.

Mick McCarthy shocked Borders with a touchdown for Connacht, only for Mark McHugh’s conversion to hit the post.

But McHugh’s two late strikes proved enough to send Connacht into the quarter-final draw.