Ulster 32
Connacht 27
URC Round 4
TWO WINS FROM their first two home games for Ulster will go some way to addressing the underwhelming crowd at Kingspan Ravenhill.
Saturday nights are just not cricket for Ulster fans. Club rugby scuppers provincial match-going plans. Traditional Friday nights are clearly much preferred. Dunno if you’ve heard but they are sticklers for tradition round these parts.
The empty seats will not be a huge concern to head coach Richie Murphy as he his team are back on the right tracks after a really poor tour of South Africa for the previous two games and defeats.
You knew they had ground to make up when they opened positively. They passes up their first lineout attempt in the corner, but fly half Aidan Morgan was not to be discouraged as he squeezed the ball in tight. Iain Henderson held John Andrew’s throw and it was Andrew that went over after a small struggle, John Cooney adding the conversion.
In the eighth minute Josh Ioane kicked for the corner and from the resulting lineout they made several big thumping drives to get over. At one point it appeared Dave McCann had turned the ball over but after almost going over under the posts, Ben Murphy dished it short to Ioane to fling a long pass wide left to the waiting Shayne Bolton to sneak in along the touchline.
Ioane’s conversion kick however, sailed across the face of the posts.
Soon after, both sides were dealt a blow when Iain Henderson and Finley Bealham had to be withdrawn after a clash of heads in the middle of the park. Bealham would return to the fray but Henderson looked rather more groggy.
Jude Postlethwaite was the latest to profit from the one set play that Ulster lean heavily on, another Morgan ball into the corner, a drive later and after some spurned effort eventually the centre went over, but this time Cooney fluffed the conversion.
By the 28th minute Ulster were rocking. After getting good field position, Cooney picked the ball at the base of a scrum and spotting some space in behind, went for it. The despairing dive of Mack Hansen wasn’t enough as he dived between the posts and quick order, sent the conversion over.
19-5 and 29 minutes gone, Connacht had shown little enough of anything in particular. But this ignited them.
Joe Joyce went over for a try not two minutes later in yet another go for the corner manoeuvre, with Ioane fluffing the conversion.
Ben Murphy was soon causing his father Richie severe discomfort when he spotted a gap inside from a long way out and sprinted through as the clock inched past 40 minutes for his own try. This time, Ioane’s conversion just crept over the crossbar for a successful kick, leaving Connacht just two points behind at the break.
Connacht had a try disallowed three minutes into the second half when Sean O’Brien was adjudged not to have touched down.
After putting Ben Murphy out of touch and a bit of extended handbags, the game resumed with an Ulster maul that David McCann dotted down, while Cooney couldn’t quite make the conversion.
Connacht hit back with another try following a maul on 60 minutes and all of a sudden it was a four tries apiece game. Ioane made the conversion to leave it level.
With the replacements rolling off the bench the game entered a period of stasis and with both teams tiring, it felt like a stalemate was coming.
That was before Josh Murphy caught James McCormick with a dangerous hit, played back on the big screen and with the benefit of some guidance from the Ulster support, referee Andrew Brace gave a red card.
Up stepped Cooney to thump over the penalty and the home side were back in control.
It energised the Ravenhill support with the energy seeming to spill down onto the pitch with a try by Nick Timoney to mark his 150th cap on 77 minutes, the extra space by then easy to locate.
It was a fitting way to round off the evening, with something for everyone with Josh Ioane knocking over a penalty at the end to ensure two bonus try points.
Ulster: E McIlroy; W Kok, S Moore, J Postlethwaite, J Stockdale; A Morgan, J Cooney; A Warwick, J Andrew, T O’Toole; I Henderson (capt), K Treadwell; D McCann, S Reffell, N Timoney.
Replacements: A O’Connor for Henderson (15), B Carson for Postlethwaite (31), J McCormick for Andrew (52), N Doak for Morgan (58), N Timoney for Rea (60), C Reid for Warwick (66)
Tries: Andrew (3), Postlethwaite (20), Cooney, (28), McCann (50), Timoney (77)
Conversions: Cooney (3, 28)
Penalties: Cooney (71)
Connacht: S Cordero; M Hansen, P O’Conor, B Aki, S Bolton; J Ioane, B Murphy; D Buckley, D Heffernan, F Bealham; J Joyce, J Murphy; C Prendergast (capt), S O’Brien, P Boyle.
Replacements: T Lasisi for Bealham (15 – 18 [temp], 67-69 [temp]), D Tierney-Martin for Heffernan (55) P Dooley for Buckley (56), O Dowling for Joyce (60), D O’Connor for Boyle (60), C Blade for Murphy (60), C Oliver for O’Brien (62) C Forde for Cordero (68)
Tries: Bolton (8), Joyce (30), Murphy (40), Tierney-Martin (60)
Conversions: Ioane (40, 60
Penalties: Ioane (80)
Ref: A Brace (IRFU)
