IRELAND WINGER ROBERT Baloucoune admits he would have preferred not to be playing in Ulster’s 32-12 win over Connacht at Kingspan Stadium, but on the pitch he showed no signs of that frustration with Andy Farrell’s decision.

Overlooked in favour of Connacht’s Mack Hansen for Ireland’s Six Nations opener against Wales on Saturday afternoon, the Enniskillen man seemed to go on a personal vendetta against Hansen’s province with a sublime two-try performance on their way to a bonus-point win that takes Ulster top of the United Rugby Championship standings.

His first try in particular was a peach, the 24-year-old taking the ball from Mike Lowry – who was equally impressive on his release from Ireland camp – on halfway and outpacing four defenders down the touchline before diving over for a try generated solely by his raw pace.

The second was much easier, Baloucoune left in acres of space to collect Billy Burns’ cross-field kick to dot down for the bonus-point score with the clock well into the red in the second half, sealing the extra point on a dominant night for Dan McFarland’s side.

It’s never easy for a player to hear they aren’t going to be involved after being called up for international duty, even more so for Baloucoune given he looked to have carved out a role for himself in the squad when he started against Argentina in the Autumn Nations, and also how impressive he was in the Heineken Champions Cup on his return from injury.

However, the former Sevens specialist insisted he did everything he could to put that out of his mind and focus on playing a significant role in helping his province to the summit of the league in their re-arranged inter-pro.

“Obviously disappointed I wasn’t involved in tomorrow’s game but, as soon as you’re told, you try and do your best in training during the week and try and get involved and show what you’ve got,” says Baloucoune.

“As soon as I came up to Ulster, I switched and focused on getting involved in the game and getting up to the speed with the plays.

“It was nice to get the speed and open up the legs down the wing. It’s always nice to get a try like that, especially when it’s something I back myself on. It’s always good scoring, always good winning here at Ulster.”

His performance, along with that of Lowry – who had two fantastic first-half line-breaks on back-to-back plays, one nearly setting up Ethan McIlroy for a score and one sending Greg Jones over for the opening try of the contest – understandably drew praise from head coach McFarland.

However, rather than focus on what they necessarily did on the pitch, the former Connacht prop was much happier with the mentality the pair showed by coming back into the side having only arrived home from Portugal in midweek and getting stuck straight in at Kingspan Stadium.

“They’re class players. They’re really disappointed they’re not in the Ireland 23. They were two of the stand-out players in the Champions Cup, certainly Michael was and Rob in his last two games excelled. They demonstrated that class tonight,” said McFarland.

“Do I think they should be playing, or at least involved (against Wales)? I’d love to see them playing. But the competition is fierce on this island.

“They came down, they didn’t train with us this week, we rested them yesterday, but they’re quality pros. They went out and did the business tonight.”

The performance as a whole was a fairly dominant one for Ulster, who held Connacht at arm’s length for the first three quarters of the game before turning the screw in the final 20 minutes – even if the scoreboard didn’t reflect it in that period.

Three tries to the good at the break and 12 points clear coming into a period of the game where the westerners have typically struggled in recent weeks, the back row duo of Cian Prendergast and Conor Oliver stood out in frustrating Ulster at the breakdown as they pressed for the final try, but eventually the hosts wore them down.

Hooker Declan Moore, on loan from Munster, excelled on his first start having stepped in at the last minute due to an injury to John Andrew and played the full 80 minutes with prop Eric O’Sullivan covering on the bench, while scrum-half Nathan Doak continues to further his case for potential international recognition.

Now top of the domestic standings again after back-to-back wins on home turf, and with a European last-16 tie against Toulouse to relish, Ulster head into their brief Six Nations break with a spring in their step, even more so with another bonus-point to savour for the next few weeks.

“Very pleasing. It looked like it wasn’t going to come, and that was a combination of us not being able to get the ball over the line from two metres out and Connacht’s quality defence. It was urgent, aggressive, often illegal, but we didn’t manage to get the ball over the line to put the game to bed bonus-point-wise earlier on,” admitted McFarland.

“But, in the end, that was a really good finish.”

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