Connacht have recorded a winning start to their Challenge Cup campaign, with a 22-8 win over the Newcastle Falcons at The Sportsground this evening.

On a night where Adam Byrne would make his first start in green, he made an impact with one of the tries of the season, while Buccaneers star Oisin McCormack came off the bench to become the 946th player to earn a cap for the province.

Connacht struck early laying siege to the Newcastle line, the pack was doing all the damage but Paul Boyle picked from the back of the maul and drove over for their opening try in the third minute, David Hawkshaw with the conversion for a 7-0 lead.

The visitors took their time to get back into the tie, Tian Schoeman landed a penalty after 19 minutes to reduce the arrears, before a well worked move was finished off by Nathan Earle in the corner as Falcons moved 8-7 clear by the 25th minute.

It was a nip and tuck half on a cold night in Galway, but Connacht would get back into the game with an out of this world try for Adam Byrne, getting his first try in Connacht colours to restore the lead out to 14-8 after 37 minutes.

Schoeman missed a drop goal attempt two minutes into the second half for Falcons, while Hawkshaw would also have a failed attempt at the posts from a penalty. A game for both defences but the errors were there as both made unnecessary mistakes.

Hawkshaw would get Connacht on the board for the first time in the second half, his close range penalty putting a bigger gap between the teams as Connacht moved 17-8 clear by the hour mark.

Connacht huffed and puffed to put the game beyond doubt in the final minutes, they would seal the win four minutes from time after a beautiful crossfield ball from Conor Fitzgerald was gathered inside the Newcastle line by Diarmuid Kilgallen who did enough to shield the ball before touching down under pressure.