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Connacht's love affair with the Heineken Cup was cemented in their first season in the tournament after their victory over Harlequins - who were on their way to becoming English champions. - 19/10/2012 09:15
Connacht’s love affair with the Heineken Cup was cemented in their first season in the tournament after their victory over Harlequins – who were on their way to becoming English champions.
The Irish province marked their debut season in the top flight by recording a shock 9-8 victory at the Sportsground in Round 6 and will be hoping to do the same to the English aristocrats on Saturday.
And now Connacht have notched up their first away win in the Heineken Cup by beating tournament new boys Zebre 19-10 in Parma in the opening game of their Pool they will want to build on that win in front of what is expected to be a sell-out crowd in Galway.
Dan Parks took his European points tally through the 550 mark with a match-winning, 14 point contribution on his Heineken Cup debut for his new side.
“We can’t wait to play in front of a packed out Sportsground this weekend in our first home Heineken Cup game of this camapign,” said try-scorer John Muldoon.
'Quins saw their Heineken Cup dream disappear in the rain of Galway last December but they travel to Ireland as the reigning English champions and on the back of a comfortable 40-13 victory over Biarritz Olympique.
Conor O'Shea's side ran in four tries against last season's Amlin Challenge Cup champions in a comprehensive performance which bodes well for their revenge mission to Ireland.
Match Facts
Nick Evans, Harlequins top points scorer in the Heineken Cup, is still waiting for the opportunity to make it 150 points in this tournament. He needs six more to do so.
Connacht’s 9-8 victory over Harlequins in round six last season ended a five game losing run against Premiership opponents.
Quins have lost their last two away matches in Europe.
Quins overall record in Ireland in the Heineken Cup is won 1, lost 5. The only win being 21-15 at Ulster on their first ever visit on 16 October 1996.
The two teams have met on eight previous occasions with Connacht victorious just twice – both at the Sportsground.
Harlequins
Harlequins maintained their position at the top of Pool 3 with a closely-contested 30-22 win over Connacht in Galway.
The reigning English Champions had to dig deep to make it back-to-back success stories following their bonus-point triumph against Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque.
A brace of tries from England scrum-half Danny Care turned the game in Quins’ favour just before the break as the visitors scored 15 unanswered points in the final 10 minutes of the half.
Care crossed on the half-hour mark and then again seven minutes later, with Ben Botica converting once and adding another penalty in injury time at the end of the first period.
Connacht ran out narrow winners in this fixture last season and the Irish province looked to be heading towards another famous upset when a sixth-minute Dave McSharry try was complimented by a fine kicking display from Dan Parks that saw the hosts lead 10-6 and then 19-9 after 27 minutes.
But Care’s quick-fire brace handed Harlequins a 24-19 advantage at the break, with neither side able to add to their try-scoring tally in a nerve-wracking second half.
Parks closed the gap to just two points with a fifth penalty four minutes after the restart but it was as close as Connacht came to repeating their Round 1 win at Zebre.
Botica continued his assured form at fly-half to kick two more penalties after being asked to stand in for the injured Nick Evans as he finished with a personal tally of 20 points seven days after bagging 18 when replacing his fellow Kiwi against Biarritz.
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