Gloucester register first win in Champions Cup after beating Connacht 26-17

Gloucester Rugby 26-17 Connacht, Kingsholm Stadium
Scorecard

Gloucester Rugby have revived their Champions Cup hopes as they registered a 26-17 win over Connacht at Kingsholm Stadium on Sunday.

This is Gloucester's first win from three games as they move to the second position in Pool 5 with five points while Connacht are languishing at the bottom with four points.

Tom Marshall gave a promising start with a fourth minute try that was improved by Danny Cipriani but Connacht levelled the scores by the ninth minute when John Porch capitalised on an offload from Jack Carty to crossover and the fly-half kicked the conversion to make it 7-7.

Carty ensured Connacht had a three-point lead in the first half with his maiden penalty goal in the 18th minute.

The Cherry and Whites were quick to get off the block in the second half with Louis Rees-Zammit crossing the whitewash while Cipriani slotted the extras to make it 14-10 and their momentum was boosted with Kyle Godwin sin-binned for repeated off side.

Gloucester made full use of the numerical advantage as they scored back to back tries through Marshall (61') and Jake Polledri (64') making the scoreline 26-10.

Connacht had a chance with Gloucester reduced to 14-men for the last six minutes with Twelvetrees yellow-carded and all the Irish side could manage was a try from Quin Roux in the final minute and a conversion from Conor Fitzgerald that reduced their losing margin to nine points.