Last-eight hopefuls Connacht had little difficulty in racking up a 66-21 bonus-point win in a Champions Cup mismatch at the Sportsground.
The westerners’ fourth victory in five European rounds gives them 18 points in their three-way battle with Pool 2 rivals Wasps and Toulouse. Their quarter-final hopes now hang on next week’s trip to the south-west of France.
Despite showing some early promise with tries from Johan Meyer and Federico Ruzza, the lowly Italians coughed up the bonus-point score by the 27th minute and ended the first half with two men in the sin-bin.
Converted tries from Matt Healy, John Cooney, man-of-the-match Tiernan O’Halloran and Finlay Bealham guaranteed the extra point for Connacht, before additional efforts from Kieran Marmion and Craig Ronaldson made it 40-14 at the interval.
The Irish province’s try tally stood at 10 by the final whistle, Healy, O’Halloran and Marmion all completing their braces, with replacement Caolin Blade getting them into double figures and lock James Cannon playing a starring role up front.
Owing to Connacht’s current injury crisis, Cooney played at fly-half for the first time and landed eight conversions, including a brilliant banana kick in the blustery wind.
The eager Galway crowd did not have long to wait for the first try, the clock showing just 95 seconds when winger Healy glided over unopposed on the right after full-back O’Halloran had been sprung through midfield.
However, a poor turnover in their own 22 led to Connacht leaking a sixth-minute response, Kurt Baker going close before fellow southern hemisphere recruit Meyer muscled over from a couple of metres out.
Strong first-up defending from Gianluca Guidi’s side forced another turnover and ultimately their second converted try, the forwards laying the platform for number eight Ruzza to notch his third European score of the season.
Cooney converted his own 16th-minute try to get Connacht back on track, finishing off a crisp move that began inside halfway via Marmion’s inviting pass that sent Sean O’Brien galloping into space.
Scrum-half Marmion increased his influence with a snappy break and with the Connacht maul drawing a penalty, Cooney’s nicely-weighted kick through was touched down by a diving O’Halloran under the posts, with the conversion restoring the early seven-point buffer.
As Zebre’s discipline worsened, the hosts took full advantage, prop Bealham finishing off a well-executed lineout drive for the bonus-point score and the Italians losing winger Lloyd Greeff to the bin for a high tackle on Niyi Adeolokun.
Tighthead Pietro Ceccarelli joined him on the touchline after successive maul infringements, allowing Connacht to pick off two more tries with Marmion twisting over from an advancing scrum and then providing the assist for fit-again centre Ronaldson’s canter in by the posts.
Zebre’s tackling was awful at times and Healy had his second try barely a minute into the second period, with O’Halloran then doing likewise after the pacey pair had linked up again on the left wing.
Replacement forwards Dave Heffernan and James Connolly were to the fore as excellent hands released Marmion for a 48-metre sprint to the line, seeing Pat Lam’s men cross the 60-point mark.
The emptying of Connacht’s bench, combined with some sloppy general play, allowed Zebre to dictate in and around the hour mark and centre Mattia Bellini helped himself to a close-range converted try.
However, the home side managed to have the final say when Healy scampered away from inside his own half and passed for the supporting Blade to complete the scoring with 14 minutes remaining.

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The Patriots are big favorites in today’s playoff game against Houston, but they know underdogs can bite.
Fifteen points.
That’s how much oddsmakers in Vegas think the New England Patriots will beat the Houston Texans by – at least – in Saturday night’s AFC divisional round playoff game at Gillette Stadium.
It’s one of the largest point spreads for an NFL playoff game in the past 50 years.
Maybe 15 points is a good place to start, considering the Patriots beat the Texans, 27-0, back in September – with third-string quarterback Jacoby Brissett making his first NFL start while Tom Brady was serving his four-game suspension.
Consider this, too: The Texans have never won a game at Gillette Stadium (0-4) and Brady is 5-1 against Houston (the lone loss coming in a meaningless contest on the final weekend of 2009 regular season, a game in which Wes Welker blew out his knee).
Frankly, the Patriots should win Saturday by 15 points. It shouldn’t be close. The top-seeded Patriots (14-2) are vastly better than the Texans, who won their division with a 9-7 mark and then beat the short-handed Oakland Raiders, 27-14, in a wild-card playoff game last weekend.
Yes, Houston enters the game with the top-rated defense in the NFL. But the Texans played six games against offenses ranked in the top 10 in scoring – New England, Oakland, Green Bay, San Diego, and twice against Indianapolis – and lost four of those games.
New England put up 27 points on Houston in Week 3 of the regular season without Brady (who’s back, in a big way), with Rob Gronkowski playing very little (he’s out for the rest of the season, of course) and with their passing game netting only 103 yards.
Yes, the Patriots should win easily on Saturday. But they’re not buying into any of that.
“It means absolutely nothing,” linebacker Shea McClellin said when asked about the point spread. “That’s only for people who bet.”
You’re not going to get anyone on the Patriots to say anything other than that they expect a great game from the Texans. They expect Jadeveon Clowney and Whitney Mercilus to put on a ferocious pass rush. They expect cornerbacks A. J. Bouye and Johnathan Joseph to blanket every receiver. They expect quarterback Brock Osweiler to regain the form that earned him a stunning $72 million contract in free agency. They expect DeAndre Hopkins to show why he is considered one of the best wide receivers in all of football.
And if they need a reminder of how the underdogs can bite, the Patriots need only to look back at their own history to know betting lines mean nothing.
They won their first Super Bowl championship in 2002 by beating the St. Louis Rams, 20-17, in a game in which the Rams were favored by 14 points.
They lost two Super Bowls when favored against the New York Giants, including in 2008 when New England was favored by 12.5 points and trying to complete an undefeated season.
Vince Wilfork, the former Patriot who now plays nose tackle for the Texans, mentioned the 2008 Super Bowl and Clemson’s win over favored Alabama in Monday’s college football championship as examples of bad picks.
“So, it goes to show you what these experts know,” Wilfork said during a conference call with reporters this week. “One of the things is we don’t pay attention to outside, what people have to say about us or how good or how bad we are. I think this team is a close-knit group. We play well together and we keep everything as a family. We approach every game the same.”
Wilfork knows of what he speaks. He began his NFL career in the Patriots locker room, learning the game from veterans such as Willie McGinest and Tedy Bruschi and Richard Seymour.
He knows that nothing that’s said or written outside the locker room has any place inside it. Apparently he’s trying to bring that attitude to his new team.
The newest Patriots learn that every year.
New England tight end Martellus Bennett, acquired in an offseason trade from Chicago, spoke about that this week.
“We don’t really care,” he said, when asked about blocking out the noise and distractions. “No one really cares what you guys write or what you guys say.
“We just believe in one another and what we have here and we never really listen to the outsiders because we know what’s true with what’s in here and in this locker room with the coaching staff and the work that we put in on the practice field.”
There are those who say the Patriots have a clear path to the Super Bowl in Houston on Feb. 5. They say that there isn’t a team in the AFC, or possibly the NFC, that can stop them.
Maybe. Probably. But the Patriots aren’t making any parade plans just yet.
“It’s the NFL,” McClellin said. “Everyone has great players. It’s a matter of who plays best that day.”
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ATLANTA — When your fourth-quarter exploits have reached such acclaim that your own team gives you the “Game of Thrones”-inspired nickname “The King in the Fourth,” you earn some extremely rare privileges. Like being able to wave off your coach before a key final possession, even if he’s regarded as one of the best X’s and O’s guys in the league.
After the Celtics blew a double-digit lead, Isaiah Thomas hit a 19-foot jumper with two seconds left to lift Boston over the Hawks.
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So when Paul Millsap ‘s 3-pointer tied Friday’s game with 25 seconds to play, Boston Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas immediately looked toward coach Brad Stevens and waved off the timeout that would have otherwise come. Thomas wasn’t about to let this win get away, not on teammate Al Horford ‘s first game back in Atlanta, and not after Boston led by double digits just five minutes earlier.
Thomas dribbled down the clock and then accelerated down the right side just enough to get a step on defender Kent Bazemore. When Bazemore scrambled to recover and help came to clog the paint, Thomas put on the brakes, then — in his very best Paul Pierce impression — splashed a 19-foot step-back jumper to lift his team to a 103-101 triumph over the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena.
Thomas, the NBA’s leader in fourth-quarter scoring, registered 13 of his team-high 28 points in the final frame. Things should have been easier for a Boston team that led by as many as 20 with 15:23 to play, but in fumbling away the lead, it only set the stage for Thomas’ lore to grow.
“I think [Stevens] was trying to call timeout at first. Then he was trying to do a play to run a pick-and-roll, but I called it off a little bit,” Thomas said. “And he trusts me. At the end he said, ‘hell of a shot.’ It was something I wanted to try to take advantage of.
“Bazemore had that look in his face like he was going to get a stop, and I had other plans. ”
Stevens is a bit of a whiteboard wizard, and that’s reflected in Boston ranking third in the NBA while averaging 0.968 points per play on ATO (after-timeout plays), according to Synergy Sports data. The Celtics, as a team, average only 0.867 points per play in isolation, which would seem to suggest that a timeout is beneficial in a late-game situation.
But Thomas has been stellar in isolation this season. He averages a ridiculous 1.22 points per play, which ranks in the 95th percentile among all NBA players. Of the 73 players who qualify with at least 40 isolation plays this season, Thomas ranks No. 1 in the NBA while shooting 50 percent.
Bazemore played solid defense, recovering in time for a solid contest on the 5-foot-9 Thomas’ jumper. But with a little bit of his familiar rainbow arc on the shot, Thomas produced the winner.
Stevens admitted that Thomas has a green light in those situations. Asked how he earned that trust, Stevens responded, “Makes a boatload of shots. ”
Check out the team site for more game coverage
Added Stevens: “Usually you’d call timeout in that situation, but he actually — I could see him down the court, kinda wave off the idea of a timeout. I told him, ‘All right, go win the game.’ That’s what you have to do if you wave off an idea of a timeout. I trust him to do that, and ultimately, he’s made so many big plays you believe in your guy. ”
When Millsap missed a jumper that would have forced overtime on Atlanta’s final gasp, Horford emphatically pumped his first before quickly collecting himself and embracing some of his former teammates. After hearing boos during lineup introductions and again at the start of his tribute video at the end of the first quarter, Horford appeared to take great satisfaction in his new team finding a way to pull out a win.
“We really wanted to dig this one out for Al — he really deserved it,” said Kelly Olynyk , who got thrust into elevated activity and responded with maybe his best game of the season by putting up 26 points during 32 minutes. Olynyk was a team-best plus-20 in plus/minus.
Horford acknowledged hearing the boos. He missed two free throws after getting fouled on one of the game’s first possessions but downplayed the notion that he might have had some nervous energy at the start of the game.
As for the boos, Horford said, “They were unexpected. I don’t want to say anything, but it is what it is. I know there’s a lot of fans out there that appreciated my time here, and I appreciate them. ”
He otherwise enjoyed the 90-second tribute video the Hawks produced that traced his Atlanta journey from draft night to some of his biggest wins with the Hawks to his work in the community. When it ended with a “Thank you, Al” message, the confounding sparse crowd gave him a standing ovation.
Thomas told the story earlier this week of how, in his second game after getting traded, he played against the Phoenix Suns team that dealt him to Boston. Despite not knowing many of his new teammates, they all pledged to get him a win that night. This was Thomas’ turn to ensure Horford left Atlanta with a victory.
“That’s all we wanted. I heard a few boos at the beginning when they called his name, but I’m glad they appreciated him when they did a standing ovation because he’s a hell of a — not just basketball player — but hell of a guy,” said Thomas. “And we needed to get that win for him. We knew it was big for him. ”
Thomas, too, admitted he was surprised to hear boos for Horford. He dubbed them “disrespectful,” while noting, “None of them people booing are turning down that money. ” Horford, who signed a four-year, $113 million deal with Boston this past summer after nine seasons in Atlanta, finished with 10 points, six rebounds and six assists during 35 minutes.
Still, this night belonged to Thomas, who is averaging 9.9 points per game in the fourth quarter. Thomas, who embraced Kevin Garnett’s recent assertion that he deserves to be in the MVP conversation, is making a heck of a case for a starting role for the Eastern Conference All-Stars, even if that means likely taking a fourth quarter off that night.
Until then, he’ll continue to embrace the final 12 minutes. Teammates were playfully asking Thomas if he knew what time it is as he prepared to meet with the media after his winner.
“You know what time it is, man,” Thomas said. “You know what time it is. “

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© Source: http://www.espn.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4724987/the-king-in-the-fourth-isaiah-thomas-saves-win-in-al-horfords-return-to-atlanta
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Sam Sunderland became the first British competitor to win the Dakar Rally when he took victory in the motorbikes classification on Saturday.
The 27-year-old came home 32 minutes ahead of nearest competitor Matthias Walkner of Austria after the final stage in Argentina.
The KTM rider, who is based in Dubai, took the lead after stage five of 12.
The 38th edition of the rally began in Asuncion, Paraguay and ran through Bolivia and Argentina.
In 2014, Sunderland became the first British rider to win a stage of Dakar since John Deacon in 1998.
This was his third attempt at winning the rally, having been forced to retire in 2012 and 2014 with mechanical problems. The 2016 winner, Toby Price of Australia, pulled out of this year’s race during the fourth stage.
Sunderland secured victory after safely navigating the final special stage, a 40-mile race into the Argentine town of Rio Cuarto.
It is the 16th year in a row that KTM have won the motorbike title.
French driver Stephane Peterhansel held off the challenge of compatriot Sebastien Loeb to win his seventh cars title. He has also won the bikes title six times.
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The Chicago Cubs won their first World Series title in 108 years last fall, and the Cleveland Cavaliers ended their city’s 52-year championship drought by winning the NBA title last June.
Could the Atlanta Falcons , who have never won a Super Bowl in their 51-year history, end more than five decades of futility with their first title?
“It would huge,” defensive lineman Jonathan Babineaux , the team’s longest-tenured player, told reporters this week.
“The city of Atlanta has been waiting on a Super Bowl for many years now. To have a season like we’ve had, to be able to play the way we’ve been playing, everybody’s excited, man.”
The Falcons have a championship-caliber quarterback in Matt Ryan , who set a franchise record with 4,944 yards, plus had 38 touchdown passes versus seven interceptions. He has a dynamic target in Julio Jones , who was second in the NFL with 1,409 receiving yards despite missing two games because of a toe injury.
They do not have a championship-caliber defense, ranking 28th in the NFL in passing yards and 17th in rushing yards allowed this season, so they could have difficulty containing Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson , a two-way threat who is 8-3 in 11 postseason starts.
The Seahawks , under seven-year Coach Pete Carroll , will be making their sixth playoff appearance in seven years, a run that included a Super Bowl win in 2013 and a Super Bowl appearance in 2014.
The Falcons, under second-year Coach Dan Quinn, the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator during both Super Bowl runs, last reached the playoffs in 2012.
Falcons defensive end Dwight Freeney , a 15-year veteran who won a Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts in 2006, acknowledged the playoff experience matters.
“Maybe you’re a little more comfortable with the moment,” he said.
“I think you know what to expect, so that will help you a little bit. Sometimes, when you haven’t been there, you will let the moment overwhelm you. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it can happen.”
The teams met in Week 6, the Seahawks rallying down the stretch for a 26-24 victory in which they gained 72 yards rushing.
Seattle running back Thomas Rawls missed that game because of a leg injury, but he is a force the Falcons will have to deal with today.
Rawls punished Detroit Lions in last week’s 26-6 opening-round victory, rushing for 161 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries behind an offensive line that struggled with inconsistency for much of the season but jelled last week.
How teams compare statistically. All stats are per-game averages, except for sacks and turnover differential, which is for the season (league rank in parentheses):
Without Earl Thomas patrolling the back end of Seattle’s defense, the Seahawks will be hard pressed to contain Atlanta’s passing game. Falcons’ front four will get pressure on Russell Wilson.
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