Cardiff v Connacht: A look at the numbers

Connacht beat Cardiff Rugby 16-12 in Saturday night's URC action despite only scoring one try in the 60^th minute of the game whilst the opponents outscored them by one try. The try came from substitute Peter Dooley who came on 10 minutes earlier for Dennis Buckley. They managed to win secure the game by converting 3 penalty kicks which came from Cardiff’s ill-discipline.

Let’s have a closer look at the numbers between the Irish province and the Welsh province.

Connacht’s full-back Tiernan O'Halloran managed to gain 67 metres in 11 ball carries, with his teammate, Andrew Smith, who is also part of the back three came close with 66 metres gained in 9 ball carries.

David Hawkshaw certainly meant business in Connacht’s midfield beating 4 defenders. Mackenzie Martin, Cian Pendergast and Caolin Blade came close with each of them beating 3 defenders.

Shamus Hurley-Langton was the only player to make two line-breaks in the game in 9 ball carries.

Defensively Cardiff worked hard with lock Shane Lewis-Hughes making 18 tackles, alongside his lock partner Seb Davies making the second most tackles (16).

Collectively, Cardiff’s front pack (excluding Tom young) made an impactful 82 tackles.