Tries from Kieran Marmion and Nathan White looked to have secured the four points for the hosts in Galway after going in at half-time locked at 10-10. But Macauley Cook’s 70th-minute touchdown gave Mark Hammett’s men hope before Sam Hobbs squirmed over – Rhys Patchell held his nerve to land the levelling conversion.
Adam Thomas scored his first Blues try to give them the lead early on before Robbie Henshaw replied. Craig Ronaldson’s penalty gave Connacht a sixth-minute lead but the home team’s misfiring line-out then resulted in Blues pressure which culminated in full-back Thomas’s 19th-minute try. Patchell pounced after a misfired throw-in and took the Blues to within five metre’s of the try line before Thomas latched on to Lewis Jones’ pass from the base of a scrum to burst through some weak defending.
The fly-half slotted the conversion to increase Blues’ lead but Connacht were back in front by the 31st minute when Henshaw stretched to score after Danie Poolman had been held just short. The hosts stretched their lead after the break when Marmion seized upon Willie Faloon’s charge down to beat the Blues’ cover defence. And things got worse four minutes later when prop White barged his way over to score.
But the visitors were far from dead and buried. With ten minutes left on the clock, Cook powered over and Patchell added the extras to get them back within a converted try of the Sportsground side. As Blues continued to produce all the pressure, replacement Hobbs managed to ground against one of the padded posts – although the television match official took some time to make his adjudication – and Patchell’s routine conversion levelled the contest.
Connacht tried to set up a drop goal chance for fly-half Jack Carty from the restart but the effort was blocked as the home players were left deflated by their late collapse.
