Match report: Connacht 8-match losing streak ends with a win over Bristol Bears
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It was a disappointing return to Dexcom Stadium for Pat Lam as Connacht Rugby ended their eight-match losing run with a 27-10 demolition of his Bristol Bears in the Investec Challenge Cup.
It means that Connacht Rugby - one of Lam's former teams - lifted themselves off the bottom of Pool 1.
They won't know until tomorrow, however, whether they are through to the knockout stages as it depends on what Saracens do against Lyon.
A clumsy foot from second row Josh Caulfield caught the side of the skull of prop Finlay Bealham to earn him a red card in the 14th minute, and although Connacht Rugby were already 5-0 up thanks to a seventh-minute try from wing Shayne Bolton, it decided the direction of the rest of the match.
Prop Jack Aungier got his first try of the competition as he powered over the line, with scrum-half Caolin Blade getting in on the action just after the half hour, sprinting free from the pack's well-organised maul and crossing in the corner.
Wing Andrew Smith had plenty of freedom down the right wing, thinking he had scored the most spectacular try of the evening before the video referee suggested that his foot had edged into touch by the most minute of margins. Smith made up for it a couple of minutes later, unmarked in the same area as he raced through to confirm a bonus point.
Fly-half JJ Hanrahan and replacement Jack Carty added a conversion each, with Carty also kicking a second-half penalty.
Bristol Bears mustered only a first-half penalty from fly-half AJ MacGinty, with an added-time penalty try merely a consolation.
