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JUST ABOUT AND no more. Ulster squeezed home with an understrength team.
The optimistic will point to the vast number of 48 players used this season so far and the uptick in form. The pessimists will say how scrappy it all became and the control that vanished as the second half wore on.
Playing with the wind in the first half, with some squally showers blowing into the stadium that must have made Connacht feel at home, Ulster set the opening tempo high.
Dan McFarland, perhaps mindful of how they were beaten to the breakdown so frequently in the game last May, 15-10 to Connacht in the URC quarter-final, picked what many would feel to be his speedy options in the back row.
After just three minutes they had the first try of the game. An electrifying move down the left flank gave them the territory they required and after a few pick and mauls later, scrum half John Cooney was able to find doughty veteran Andy Warwick, all alone and ready to go over, Cooney making good with the conversion.
Just five minutes later Connacht were going close and it took Iain Henderson on the line to hold up Tom Farrell. But the pressure was high in the next phase and Bundee Aki flew over the line with some afters to follow. Jack Carty made the conversion.
Connacht were briefly under the impression they had the next try. Aki sent Sean O’Brien away into space and while he was taken down – and taken off in the next break in play – Shayne Bolton gathered and poked a grub kick forward that sat up nicely, eventually, but he just ran out of real estate on which to ground the ball.
The photograph here is instructive.
The tap penalty – such a weapon six days ago against Racing 92, was deployed again by Cooney on 20 minutes and the home side gained the necessary yards to once again recycle and put Nick Timoney over. The conversion was from seven yards off the touchline but Cooney floated it over to make it 14-7.
A measure of their aggression came when Mack Hansen was sacked twice in two minutes – the first time by that reborn Jacob Stockdale who is making a name for himself as a defensive force.
A penalty by Cooney on 51 minutes left them with a ten point advantage.
With the big unit replacements coming in, Connacht flipped the game on its’ head.
Shamus Hurley-Langton skipped along the touchline soon after avoiding the tackles to go over. There was a suspicion that his foot touched sideline chalk but that was waved away. However, the conversion was too tight for Carty.
Shayne Bolton wriggled through a gap to land Connacht’s next try on 69 minutes. JJ Hanrahan introduced two minutes before, landed the conversion to leave a single point in it.
Ulster asked a huge amount of their front row, as well as those retrieving Cooney’s box kicks as the needle ticked into red in the closing moments.
But in the end, they were awarded a penalty and smuggled it out the back of the scrum for Timoney to kick out. They made it. Just about.
Ulster scorers:
Tries: Andy Warwick (3), Timoney (19)
Conversions: John Cooney (3, 19)
Penalties: Cooney (51, 65)
Connacht scorers:
Tries: Bundee Aki (8), Shamus Hurley-Langton (60), Shayne Bolton (69)
Conversions: Jack Carty (8), JJ Hanrahan (69)
Penalties: 0
Ulster: Will Addison, Rob Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale, Jake Flannery, John Cooney; Andy Warwick, Tom Stewart, Marty Moore, Kieran Treadwell, Iain Henderson, Matty Rea, Sean Reffell, Nick Timoney
Replacements:
John Andrew for Stewart (52), Steven Kitshoff for Warwick (52) Tom O’Toole for Marty Moore (52), Harry Sheridan for Reffell (54), Jude Postlewaite for Hume (66), Alan O’Connor for Treadwell (69), Nathan Doak for Flannery (70), Shea O’Brien for Addison (77)
Connacht: Mack Hansen, Shayne Bolton, Tom Farrell, Bundee Aki, Byron Ralston, Jack Carty, Caolin Blade; Denis Buckley, Tadgh McElroy, Finlay Bealham, Darragh Murray, Gavin Thornbury, Cian Prendergast, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Sean O’Brien.
Replacements:
Conor Oliver for Sean O’Brien (14), Dave Heffernan for McElroy (52), Peter Dooley for Buckley (67), Jack Aungier for Bealham (67), Niall Murray for D Murray (63), JJ Hanrahan for Carty (67), Shane Jennings for Bolton (78)
Referee: Eoghan Cross (IRFU)
AR 1: Frank Murphy (IRFU) AR 2: Joy Neville (IRFU)
TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)
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I’ll just have to check their website or social media while driving now for updates….
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: Could this possibly be connected? https://www.broadsheet.ie/2019/02/07/jam-today-rte-and-aa-roadwatch/
@Here’s How Podcast: Full story on the podcast here: https://blog.hereshow.ie/2019/02/heres-how-82-rte-and-the-aa/
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: You might have to pay for this service now|
Elaine o Sullivan AA road watch ! I’m gonna miss her voice
@Marko: and Ester Moore ODonoghue
@Marko: Arwen Foley was the one for me.
@Alan McArdle: Lorraine Keane anyone?
@Bill Spill: I certainly would. Met her at electric office many years ago. What a lady
@Adrian O’Donnell: Electric Office? Were you having a picnic together?
@Marko: sometimes sounded like she said the A 3 times. Maybe she’d been out the night before.
No more rind-a-bits being busy so.
@theseadoc: nothing will stop the dunkettle interchange being blocked
@Stuart:
@Stuart:
@Stuart: ah the memories of random places we only know through this broadcast! They might not even exist half of them.
Typical big buyer slashing overheads, and never mind who it affects.
@John Nolan: Ridiculous comment. Are they not entitled to make business decisions in their own interests? Why don’t you set up a traffic notification service and provide it to radio stations if it means so much to you?
What ever became of electric Eddie, eye in the sky… Probably dead and buried somewhere on the Con Colbert road, the only location with traffic back in the day
@Shay Murray: it’s driver is stuck at the Red Cow Roundabout
Who’s going to provide traffic reports for the radio stations now ? It’s a major loss for serious road users. It was fantastic to hear the traffic reports on the hour after the news and if something was happening on the road your driving on, you were notified of it. Another backwards step. In the UK, you don’t even have to wait for the news, the traffic reports interrupt whatever station your listening to.
@Sean Walsh: that is because the traffic situation in the UK is an absolute ball breaker. Not even comparable to here. Or was a ball breaker, pre covid..
Laren behan … a beautiful voice !
How will I find my in into the meeja now, love island won’t take me, AA roadwatch gone, crimewatch auditions go nowhere, and I won’t stoop to fair city levels just yet!
At least that’s a few annoying voices off the airwaves.
Useless anyway. Radio reports are brutal. Dublin 103.2 for traffic reports in real time.
@Jimmy Reid: hasn’t been the same since John left though.
Was never helpful to me. Everytime it was the same report “traffic heavy on the dunnekettle” its always heavy.
@Michael: The AA are losing money – most if not all insurance companies or garages provide breakdown cover
Have they an app? They could seek to integrate their real time info with Google maps.
@HarveyLemonade: Where there’s a will, there’s a Waze.
@HarveyLemonade: you can see traffic build ups on Google maps and Apple maps if you Amber lines on maps that’s traffic build up and red lines is traffic at a stop. Also Apple maps is eventually bringing in incident reporting to Ireland like Waze where you can report traffic, accidents speed checks etc
Patnav on Nova will have to do.
A fantastic podcast on the whole situation.
https://blog.hereshow.ie/2019/02/heres-how-82-rte-and-the-aa/?ref=Broadsheet
Bring back The eye in the Sky ! Helicopter service.
They were always rubbish anyway. I well remember the bad old days when I lived in Kildare, and you’d regularly hit a monster traffic jam on the N7 that AA Roadwatch would conveniently have forgotten to mention.
Lorraine Keane, AA Roadwatch
Why? Nooooooooo!
No more helpful mentions of their names by RTÉ presenters in order to help them up on the “celebrity” bandwagon ” ah well Swings and rindeabouts I suppose.
No more traffic “Nooze” then?
Karen Chew all day long.
Anyone remember the ozzie girl,BUMPER TO BUMPER..
@Peter Bell: that does rind a bell Peter.
@Peter Bell: that does ring a bell Peter.
Can’t read websites while driving
Delighted.
The AA and RTÉ themselves are no longer of any relevance.
What motorist would wish to have constant blabbering on a radio, same format from the same sounding stations who constantly have to announce their frequency or name to stay relevant.
Get an iPod or a subscription to Spotify or similar.
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