Rhys Patchell held his nerve deep into time added on to kick Cardiff Blues to a narrow 18-17 victory over Connacht for their first GUINNESS PRO12 victory over an Irish province this season.

Connacht were sitting pretty at half-time as they lead 10-3 thanks to Craig Ronaldson converting Jake Heenan’s try and adding a penalty to cancel out one in reply from Patchell.

But Cardiff came out of the blocks flying after the restart and wing Joaquin Tuculet went over and a Patchell penalty gave the home side their first lead.

However, it looked to all be in vain as Aly Muldowney touched down with ten minutes remaining.

But the home side pushed on and after visiting lock Mick Kearney was sin binned on 80 minutes, Tuculet made the man advantage count and went over five minutes later to allow Patchell to make himself the hero with the successful conversion.

Cardiff started on the front foot and Matt Healy was needed to pick up a ball kicked through to prevent Connacht from falling behind early on.

But it was Connacht who thought they were on the scoreboard first as a high up and under from Ronaldson was taken by Tiernan O’Halloran who touched down only for the TMO to rule that the ball had been knocked on.

But the visitors didn’t have to wait long to get in the scoreboard as Heenan came off the back of a great lineout drive to go over, Ronaldson adding the extras for an early 7-0 lead.

Both teams were being made to work hard in the opening quarter, with Ronaldson wide with a drop goal attempt on 21 minutes only for the ref to bring the ball back to a penalty and the Connacht fly-half made no mistake second time around.

However, moments later Patchell had a three-pointer of his own and he obliged by getting the home side on the board.

Both teams pushed for more before half-time but defences stood firm to leave the visitors leading 10-3 at the interval.

Cardiff showed their intent to get back into the game after the restart and enjoyed plenty of possession. They thought they were back in the game following a rolling maul but the TMO ruled otherwise. The hosts then kicked a penalty to the corner as they went again but Connacht held firm.

The Blues were then denied another try on 49 minutes as Alex Cuthbert went in under the posts as it was ruled out for obstruction to would-be tackler Dave McSharry.

Clearly in no mood to be denied, Cuthbert then broke on 54 minutes from half way and almost made it to the tryline only for Healy to get back just in time to make the tackle.

But the home side were in the ascendancy and were well and truly back in the game when left wing Tuculet went over after multiple phases. The Blues still trailed by two points though as Patchell pulled his conversion attempt wide.

On 64 minutes Patchell made amends as his penalty gave the hosts the lead for the first time in the match.
But with ten minutes remaining Cardiff found themselves trailing again as Muldowney was on the end of a 30-phase move, Ronaldson adding the extras for a 17-11 lead.

Cardiff pressed and pressed for a winning score and when lock Kearney was shown a yellow card they made him pa as Tuculet darted down to allow Patchell the winning kick.

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