Connacht trailed by 14-9 at half-time but emerged in the second half with renewed vigour. The visitors dominated the third quarter, eventually making it count on the scoreboard with a try from replacement scrum half Conor O'Loughlin and conversion from deadly accurate fly-half Tim Donnelly.

That gave Connacht a two-point lead but perhaps it was at too early a juncture for Michael Bradley's men to be thinking of only their second league win since March as Cardiff had twenty minutes to pull themselves out of trouble.

The league leaders' efforts in the closing stages warranted the victory but it was a debatable call from referee Peter Fitzgibbon that ultimately killed off any hope for Connacht.

Fitzgibbon's first pivotal call was clear cut - Connacht winger Ofisa Treviranus was sin-binned on 63 minutes for coming in from the side five metres from the line as Connacht clung on after good attacking play from the home side. Replacement Nick Macleod tapped over the penalty kick to put the hosts back in front at 17-16.

The referee's second call clearly rankled the visitors with John Fogarty harshly penalised for offside when he came from behind the back foot to tackle the man in possession, Jason Spice, at the base of a ruck.

Fogarty debated the call and for this he was sin-binned, putting Connacht down to 13 men and effectively out of contention. Macleod made no mistake with the resulting kick.

As Connacht went in search of a reprieve, Cardiff struck twice on the counter attack with James finishing on both occasions as the numerical advantage told. Late surges on the Cardiff line almost yielded a losing bonus point for the westerners but in the end it was a case of what might have been for the Irish province.

Connacht pressed early and were rewarded with a third-minute penalty success for Donnelly, who bisected the posts after the Blues defence had strayed offside.

The Blues soon got their back-line moving and some excellent hands led to full-back Ben Blair racing over for an 11th-minute try which he converted.

Connacht were content to attack from deep, launching a series of kick chases, while the territorially dominant Blues never really hit top gear.

Connacht claimed two more penalty chances which Australian kick Donnelly duly dispatched for a 9-7 lead for the visitors, with only a minute of normal time remaining in the first half.

Nonetheless, a bout of pressure near the Connacht line told in the first half injury-time when a move involving Scott Roberts and Tal Selley was given some much-needed direction by returning Wales World Cup flanker Martyn Williams. He broke through a tackle from Fogarty to cross the whitewash and hand Blair an easy conversion.

Connacht struck, out of the blue, for their lead try some 11 minutes into the second half. Blues fly-half Dai Flanagan sent a rather aimless kick downfield, full-back Gavin Duffy, Connacht's only representative in the Irish World Cup squad, retrieved the ball and ran it a full 50 yards back before O'Loughlin finished off a thrilling move.

Donnelly added the extras and for a while, Cardiff fluffed their lines as Blair and Macleod both missed penalty opportunities from distance and stand-in captain Paul Tito also knocked on as he went over the visitors' try line.

Those yellow cards proved costly as with the advantage swinging back in favour of the Blues. There was a touch of fortune about James' first try as Duffy and Keith Matthews collided as they both tried to gather a high kick and James stepped in to dribble the ball forward and touch down.

Macleod stuck the post with his conversion and also failed to add the extras when man of the match James went over for his side's bonus point-clinching try on the night and his fifth try of the campaign.

A late indiscretion earned Martyn Williams a yellow card but by that time the result was in little doubt and Cardiff held on to record their six win in seven league games.