Connacht 21
Ulster 12
CONNACHT COMPLETED A first-ever seasonal double over Ulster, as Andy Friend’s side bounced back to winning ways with a hard-fought victory which moves them above Munster in Conference A of the Guinness Pro14.
The western province were dominant for large tracts of tonight’s inter-pro in Galway and through tries from Shane Delahunt, Bundee Aki and Caolin Blade, emerged with the points to leapfrog Munster into second ahead of their meeting next week.
Ulster slipped off too many tackles and a disjointed performance from Dan McFarland’s charges saw them lose for the first time in six outings, despite tries in either half from Angus Kernohan and Jordi Murphy.
Connacht, backed by a febrile home crowd of over 8,000 at the Sportsground, pushed for a late bonus-point score but were unable to embellish another good night’s work with a fourth try, as they had to settle for the four match points.
Either way, the hosts end 2018 on a high as they recorded their sixth win from seven outings, with last week’s heartbreaking defeat to Leinster the only blot on their copybook this month.
This was the perfect reprieve after the devastating late loss at the RDS.
Connacht were 14-7 in front at half-time, after Kernohan helped half the deficit following the early efforts from Delahunt and Aki.
Scrum-half Blade scored on the resumption and despite Murphy’s consolation after Ultan Dillane’s yellow, Connacht held on to continue their play-off push in Conference A.
Friend’s side began their scrum domination in the 12th minute when they won their first penalty and Jack Carty kicked to the corner.
Colby Fainga’a won the lineout and Quinn Roux was held up just short but the ball was recycled and Delahunt touched down after a few more drives.
Connacht came again and Blade was denied a try for a double movement in the 18th minute but three minutes later, the hosts were over for their second.
It came courtesy of more scrum pressure and referee Marius Mitrea was playing advantage when Blade passed to Aki and he danced his way through the cover to score.
Aki and midfield partner Tom Farrell were in great form and Connacht looked set to move further clear as the game approached half-time but then Ulster finally settled into the contest and worked their way back into the game.
It began when Conor Carey was pinged when he held on in the tackle and Ulster went to the corner rather than opt for the kickable penalty. Connacht repelled them at first but when Johnny McPhillips kicked cross-field, Cian Kelleher fumbled the ball and gifted Kernohan his try in the left corner.
Connacht should have been well ahead but John Cooney was on target with the difficult conversion and the hosts only held a one-try advantage at the interval.
However, Connacht regained their 14-point advantage five minutes into the second half.
Kyle Godwin kicked through and Carty — excellent again here — latched onto the bouncing ball with the supporting Blade applying the finish.
Dillane was introduced in the 66th minute and was sin-binned for coming in at the side of a maul a minute later, allowing Ulster make their numerical advantage count through Murphy.
Cooney was unable to add the extras from the near touchline and as the derby entered a frenetic end-game, neither side was able to get the score they chased as Connacht got over the line with plenty left to spare.
Connacht scorers:
Tries: Shane Delahunt, Bundee Aki, Caolin Blade.
Conversions: Jack Carty [3 from 3].
Ulster scorers:
Tries: Angus Kernohan, Jordi Murphy
Conversions: John Cooney [1 from 2].
CONNACHT: Darragh Leader; Cian Kelleher, Tom Farrell, Bundee Aki, Kyle Godwin (Stephen Fitzgerald ’63); Jack Carty (Dave Horwitz ’77), Caolin Blade (James Mitchell ’77); Denis Buckley (Pete McCabe ’66), Shane Delahunt (Dave Heffernan ’54), Conor Carey (Dominic Robertson McCoy ’40); Gavin Thornbury, Quinn Roux (Ultan Dillane ’66); Sean O’Brien, Colby Fainga’a, Jarrad Butler (Paul Boyle ’64).
ULSTER: Louis Ludik; Henry Speight (David Shanahan 60), Will Addison, Darren Cave, Angus Kernohan (Stuart McCloskey ’45); Johnny McPhillips (Peter Nelson ’52), John Cooney; Eric O’Sullivan (Tommy O’Hagan ’48-67), Rob Herring (Adam McBurney ’77), Marty Moore (Ross Kane ’48); Ian Nagle(Clive Ross ’77), Kieran Treadwell; Nick Timoney, Jordi Murphy, Marcell Coetzee (Greg Jones ’46 HIA).
Referee: Marius Mitrea (FIR).
Murray Kinsella, Gavan Casey and Andy Dunne look back on a memorable year for Irish rugby.
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O Halloran should’ve been first one replaced. Caused 2 if not 3 tries when Con were on the up. Very poor effort from more also. It’s like they just didn’t want it today. Pity that.
Connacht will need to stick a plaster on this season and stop the bleed or it’ll run away from them. Poor enough performance, especially at home, but there was something in that game for them if they kept chugging away but they didn’t look like they particularly cared in the last 20 mins. On the plus side it was great to see Buckley back. Hopefully he’ll stay fit for the rest of the season.
@Jim Demps:
It was test of Connacht depth and they don’t have it…
@Cowboy Paddy: the player who caused you the most problems was one of the most experienced. Not really about depth just players making poor decisions
@Chris Mc: he’s struggled this year more than any. I thought he was very poor in the last two European games as well. Really want to see a back three of porch Hansen and Wooten
Bridge too far…
Glasgow had 12 internationals…
Good points is Forde played well, Buckley looked well…
@Cowboy Paddy: Fullback hung his teammates out to dry with a couple of aimless kicks down the centre of the pitch which Glasgow ran back at them and scored.
O’Halloran has developed a way of missing tackles to Connaught expense
That hurt, we were outclassed..by a decent margin
I’ve tons of faith that all of the lads can pull this from this from the fire, but still – ouch
Connacht can be so frustrating to watch. Such a flat performance today. Bad decisions and discipline was very poor at times.
That was really not good enough, it was such poor commitment, there’s no point targeting big champions cup games, performing for 60 mins and then losing, then come back to the league, minus a lot of first string guys, not just those gone with Ireland and play as poor as that, there’s nearly zero positive leadership within the team to grind out a win in those sorts of games, we can sometimes play well, but we far too often play like an amateur side, way too many players just looked like that game didn’t matter.
Shocking performance by Connacht. First half was absolutely appalling. No excuses. Really humbling result.
Such a strange first half of Rugby, its as if both teams didn’t want to win
We were rubbish, there’s no doubt about that but the referee allowed Glasgow to kill that game
The first half took nearly an hour. Every break in play Glasgow managed to kill any momentum or flow by getting medical attention. I think only one player was removed after medical attention
There was one scrum when Glasgow were down to 14 men where the props were allowed nearly a minute to clean their boots
It’s cynical play and no mistake and something that i think needs to be addressed
Nnnn