Cool Carty seals famous Connacht triumph
Connacht have moved level at the top of Pool Two after their Galway heroics.
The Pro12 champions looked dead and buried after Josh Bassett's late score had given Wasps a five-point lead in the closing moments.
But Naulia Dawai was shunted over the try-line from a late line-out maul to level the scores, before Carty landed the conversion from the out-wide to seal a famous triumph.
Joe Simpson had given the English side an early lead, but that was reined in by a Danie Poolman score and the boot of Jack Carty.
Carty fired Connacht ahead with his second penalty attempt after Wasps held-on at a ruck. But it did not take long for last season's semifinalists to hit the front.
Thomas Young made the initial break in midfield before finding his back row colleague Nathan Hughes. He charged towards the line but was stopped short by Kieran Marmion, but Simpson scooped up the ball to score.
Jimmy Gopperth landed the conversion to make it 7-3 before Connacht fullback Tiernan O'Halloran was sent to the sin-bin following a build-up of penalties close to their try-line. But Bundee Aki latched onto Matt Healy's offload to charge 50 metres downfield and put his side on the front-foot.
Ultan Dillane knocked on after a spell of heavy pressure, but referee Jerome Garces brought it back for a penalty, which Carty kicked to pull Connacht back within a point. And it got even better for the hosts on the stroke of half-time. Carty took the ball at first receiver and picked out replacement wing Poolman with a perfectly weighted cross-kick to score. The flyhalf then landed the touchline conversion to give his side a 13-7 half-time lead.
Gopperth cut the gap to three points with a penalty 15 minutes into the second period, but missed the chance to level the scores on the hour mark. He made no mistake from right in-front of the posts moments later though to make it 13-13.
And Wasps showed their title credentials six minutes from time.
Their powerful pack shunted Connacht off their own ball before Dan Robson picked up the ball and found Bassett with a perfectly weighted cut-out pass, and the wing finished well. But Connacht showed their fighting spirit to drive Dawai over the line to level the scores.
And Carty stepped up to dramatically snatch a 20-18 victory at the death.
The scorers:
For Connacht:
Tries:Poolman, Dawai
Cons: Carty 2
Pens: Carty 2
For Wasps:
Tries:Simpson, Bassett
Con: Gopperth
Pens: Gopperth 2
Yellow card: Tiernan O'Halloran (Connacht, 24 – repeated infringements, slowing the ball down)
Teams:
Connacht: 15 Tiernan O’Halloran, 14 Niyi Adeolokun, 13 Rory Parata, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Matt Healy, 10 Jack Carty, 9 Kieran Marmion, 8 John Muldoon (captain), 7 Nepia Fox-Matamua, 6 Eoin McKeon, 5 Quinn Roux, 4 Ultan Dillane, 3 Finlay Bealham, 2 Tom McCartney, 1 Denis Buckley.
Replacements: 16 Dave Heffernan, 17 JP Cooney, 18 Conor Carey, 19 Lewis Stevenson, 20 Sean O’Brien, 21 Caolin Blade, 22 Danie Poolman, 23 Naulia Dawai.
Wasps: 15 Rob Miller, 14 Christian Wade, 13 Brendan Macken, 12 Kurtley Beale, 11 Josh Bassett, 10 Jimmy Gopperth, 9 Joe Simpson, 8 Nathan Hughes, 7 Thomas Young, 6 Ashley Johnson, 5 Kearnan Myall, 4 Joe Launchbury (captain), 3 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 2 Tommy Taylor, 1 Matt Mullan.
Replacements: 16 Alex Rieder, 17 Tom Bristow, 18 Marty Moore, 19 James Gaskell, 20 Guy Thompson, 21 Dan Robson, 22 Alapati Leiua 23 Frank Halai.
Referee: Jerome Garces (France)
Assistant referees: Mathieu Raynal (France), Sebastian Cloute (France)
TMO: Philippe Bonhoure (France)
Source: @ChampionsCup
