John Fallon reports from The Sportsground
CONNACHT CAME FROM 17 points adrift early in the second-half to stage a stunning comeback which made it three wins on the spin at the Sportsground.
Ulster, with out-half Jake Flannery scoring 13 points, looked set to maintain their winning start despite a dozen changes from their win over the Bulls.
But Connacht managed to regroup and fought back with three tries in front of a crowd of 5,468 at the Galway venue.
Ulster lost full-back Will Addison to a hamstring injury in the warm-up which resulted in Ben Moxham coming onto the wing and Ethan McIlroy starting at full-back.
And both sides lost flankers inside two minutes with Shamus Hurley-Langton of Connacht and Ulster’s Reuben Crothers, making his first start for his home province, forced to go off after a clash of heads.
Connacht enjoyed 62% possession in the opening half but Ulster deservedly led 13-3 at the break with Flannery dictating matters.
Connacht skipper Jack Carty edged his side in front with a penalty from 30 metres in front of the posts at the end of the opening quarter.
Flannery cancelled that three minutes with a superb effort from 45 metres on the left with the wind behind them.
It took an excellent double tackle from Caolin Blade and Byron Ralston to deny Aaron Sexton in the left corner after 27 minutes.
But Ulster got in for the opening try six minutes from the break when former Irish U20 lock Harry Sheridan broke from midfield and then did superbly to offload in the tackle from Cathal Forde and Diarmuid Kilgallen to send Flannery in under the posts for a converted try.
Two minutes later Flannery pushed the lead out to 10 with a penalty in front of the posts from 35 metres.
Ulster made a glorious start to the second-half when James Hume and Sexton combined to send scrum-half Dave Shanahan in under the posts, with Flannery tapping over the conversion to lead by 20-3.
The Connacht response was good. Cathal Forde cut a superb line to skip through for their opening try after 48 minutes, with Carty converting to make it 20-10.
Carty then created the second try with a delayed pop pass which put the other centre Tom Farrell over and the Connacht captain then landed the conversion from the left to leave just three points between them after 54 minutes.
Flannery was off target from 35 metres to extend Ulster’s lead and Carty also missed one from the 22 shortly after Cian Prendergast was held up over the line by Nathan Doak and Sheridan.
A superb penalty down the right eight minutes from time by Carty gave Connacht field possession and several phases later the Connacht out-half chipped across for Diarmuid Kilgallen to catch and touch down to lead by two.
They went for the bonus point with a late penalty from Carty but the lineout was overthrown and the chance was lost, although they managed to prevent Ulster from countering for a late winner at the end of an exciting contest.
Connacht scorers:
Tries – Forde, Farrell, Kilgallen
Conversion – Carty [2/3]
Penalty – Carty [1/2]
Ulster scorers:
Tries – Flannery, Shanahan
Conversions – Flannery [2/2]
Penalties – Flannery [2/3]
CONNACHT: Tiernan O’Halloran (Andrew Smith ‘69); Byron Ralston, Tom Farrell (David Hawkshaw ‘72), Cathal Forde, Diarmuid Kilgallen; Jack Carty (c), Caolin Blade (Colm Reilly ‘61); Denis Buckley (Jordan Duggan ‘61), Dylan Tierney-Martin (Tadgh McElroy ‘70), Jack Aungier (Dominic Robertson-McCoy ‘61); Oisín Dowling (Niall Murray ‘41), Joe Joyce; Shamus Hurley-Langton (Jarrad Butler ‘2), Conor Oliver, Cian Prendergast.
ULSTER: Ethan McIlroy; Ben Moxham, James Hume (Ben Carson ‘47), Stewart Moore, Aaron Sexton; Jake Flannery (Billy Burns ‘60), Dave Shanahan (Nathan Doak ‘60); Eric O’Sullivan (Andy Warwick ‘52), John Andrew, James French (Greg McGrath ‘60); Alan O’Connor (c), Harry Sheridan; Matty Rea (Joe Hopes ‘65), Reuben Crothers (David McCann ‘2), Nick Timoney.
Referee: Morne Ferreira (South Africa).
Written by John Fallon and posted on the42.ie
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