{"id":385494,"date":"2011-04-15T22:52:31","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T22:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/"},"modified":"2011-04-15T22:52:31","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T22:52:31","slug":"connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Connacht 12-26 Cardiff Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"147\">\n<div>\n<h2>Cardiff Blues (10) 26<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Tries:<\/em> Laulala, B Davies<\/li>\n<li><em>Conversions:<\/em> Parks 2<\/li>\n<li><em>Penalties:<\/em> Parks 4<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/acac52196200_inpho_00504938-2.jpg\" width=\"226\" height=\"282\" alt=\"Connacht's Niva Ta'auso is tackled by Jamie Roberts at the Showgrounds\" \/> Connacht&#8217;s Niva Ta&#8217;auso is tackled by Jamie Roberts at the Showgrounds<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cardiff gained significant ground in the Magners League play-off race with this win in Galway.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ian Keatley kicked four penalties to help Connacht into a 12-10 half-time lead with Casey Laula going over for a Cardiff try.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues improved after the break and Connacht pair Ray Ofisa and Gavin Duffy earned yellow cards.<\/p>\n<p>Dan Parks landed three penalties and Wales lock Davies stormed over for the clinching try six minutes from time.<\/p>\n<p>Keatley&#8217;s first points came in the third minute, with his kick just nipping inside the left hand post.<\/p>\n<p>Cardiff, who brought Ma&#8217;ama Molitika into the back row as a late change, then got their big ball carriers involved.<\/p>\n<p>Ofisa put in a try-saving tackle on Gareth Williams and Connacht stand-in captain Johnny O&#8217;Connor was ruled offside at a ruck, before Parks kicked Cardiff level.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues gave away a succession of penalties at the breakdown and after Bradley Davies was penalised, Keatley sent over a fine kick from just inside the visitors&#8217; half.<\/p>\n<p>All the early pressure came from Connacht with Sean Cronin, Niva Ta&#8217;auso and Fionn Carr probing around the fringes, but David Young&#8217;s side soaked it up and threatened on the counter.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>Please turn on JavaScript.<\/strong> Media requires JavaScript to play.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>A penalty was called against hooker Williams for backchat and Keatley duly converted the right-sided kick for a 9-3 lead, with a quarter of an hour remaining in the half.<\/p>\n<p>Cardiff hit back with a well-taken try from Laulala.<\/p>\n<p>The former All Black took a great angle onto a pass in the Connacht 22, glided past Bernie Upton and Mike McCarthy and his clever footwork created enough space for him to stretch over and score by the posts.<\/p>\n<p>Television match official Dermot Moloney confirmed the grounding and Parks added the extras, but some cohesive play from his pack allowed Keatley to restore Connacht&#8217;s lead late on.<\/p>\n<p>Molitika was held up over the try-line as the Blues made a strong start to the second period, Parks mopping up with a neat penalty from the right.<\/p>\n<p>Ofisa was unfortunate to be sin-binned after he upended Jamie Roberts in a tackle that was not malicious.<\/p>\n<p>Parks did the necessary with the resulting kick and added another to move the Welshmen into a 19-12 lead.<\/p>\n<p>Cardiff upped their physicality, squeezing Connacht in the scrum and there were some huge tackles.<\/p>\n<p>Taufa&#8217;ao Filise had a bone-crushing hit on Rodney Ah You and Mike McCarthy left Molitika shuddering.<\/p>\n<p>Parks missed two penalties either side of Duffy&#8217;s sin-binning for a ruck offence in his 22. And the killer blow came when Davies escaped McCarthy&#8217;s grasp and handed off Ta&#8217;auso on the way to the try-line.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues are now just two points behind the third-placed Ospreys with a game in hand. They welcome Benetton Treviso to Cardiff City Stadium next Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Connacht:<\/strong> G Duffy; B Tuohy, N Ta&#8217;auso, T Nathan, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy; R Loughney, S Cronin, J Hagan; M McCarthy, B Upton; A Browne, J O&#8217;Connor (capt), R Ofisa.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Replacements:<\/strong> A Flavin, B Wilkinson, R Ah You, M McComish, J Muldoon, M Dolan, T O&#8217;Halloran, E Griffin.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cardiff Blues:<\/strong> Chris Czekaj; Leigh Halfpenny, Casey Laulala, Jamie Roberts, Tom James; Dan Parks, Richie Rees; John Yapp, Gareth Williams, Taufa&#8217;ao Filise, Bradley Davies, Paul Tito (capt), Andries Pretorius, Martyn Williams, Xavier Rush.<strong>Replacements:<\/strong> Rhys Williams, Sam Hobbs, Scott Andrews, Michael Paterson, Ma&#8217;ama Molitika, Lloyd Williams, Ceri Sweeney, Dafydd Hewitt.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ref:<\/strong> Andrew McMenemy (SRU)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Read More:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/go\/rss\/-\/sport1\/hi\/rugby_union\/13052559.stm\" title=\"Connacht 12-26 Cardiff Blues\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Connacht 12-26 Cardiff Blues<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Cardiff Blues (10) 26 Tries: Laulala, B Davies Conversions: Parks 2 Penalties: Parks 4 Connacht&#8217;s Niva Ta&#8217;auso is tackled by Jamie Roberts at the Showgrounds Cardiff gained significant ground in the Magners League play-off race with this win in Galway. Ian Keatley kicked four penalties to help Connacht into a 12-10 half-time lead with Casey Laula going over for a Cardiff try<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Connacht 12-26 Cardiff Blues - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Connacht 12-26 Cardiff Blues - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Cardiff Blues (10) 26 Tries: Laulala, B Davies Conversions: Parks 2 Penalties: Parks 4 Connacht&#039;s Niva Ta&#039;auso is tackled by Jamie Roberts at the Showgrounds Cardiff gained significant ground in the Magners League play-off race with this win in Galway. Ian Keatley kicked four penalties to help Connacht into a 12-10 half-time lead with Casey Laula going over for a Cardiff try\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/acac52196200_inpho_00504938-2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Connacht 12-26 Cardiff Blues\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-15T22:52:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/\"},\"wordCount\":620,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/acac52196200_inpho_00504938-2.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/\",\"name\":\"Connacht 12-26 Cardiff Blues - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/acac52196200_inpho_00504938-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-15T22:52:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/acac52196200_inpho_00504938-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/acac52196200_inpho_00504938-2.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Connacht 12-26 Cardiff Blues - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/15\/connacht-12-26-cardiff-blues\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Connacht 12-26 Cardiff Blues - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Cardiff Blues (10) 26 Tries: Laulala, B Davies Conversions: Parks 2 Penalties: Parks 4 Connacht's Niva Ta'auso is tackled by Jamie Roberts at the Showgrounds Cardiff gained significant ground in the Magners League play-off race with this win in Galway. 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