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Ulster edge out Connacht to return to winning ways after South Africa trip

By PA
Finlay Bealham of Connacht after his side's defeat in the United Rugby Championship match between Ulster v Connacht at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Ulster returned to winning ways with a hard-fought 32-27 United Rugby Championship victory over Connacht at Kingspan Stadium.

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The hosts, beaten in South Africa by the Lions and then the Bulls in their last two outings, bounced back thanks to 12 points from scrum-half John Cooney.

A 71st-minute red card for Josh Murphy following a shoulder to the face of James McCormick with the scores level at 24-24 proved costly for Connacht as the home side made the extra man count in the closing stages.

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Ulster hooker John Andrew broke the deadlock little more than two minutes in after being propelled over from a maul, Cooney converting.

Defence

155
Tackles Made
120
32
Tackles Missed
12
83%
Tackle Completion %
91%

Winger Shayne Bolton opened Connacht’s account after 11 minutes with an unconverted try. Following a series of probes on the Ulster try-line scrum-half Ben Murphy, the son of Ulster coach Richie, threw a looping pass wide for Bolton to finish in the corner.

Ulster extended their lead after 20 minutes with a try from Jude Postlethwaite, the centre reaching out and dotting down from close range, but Cooney was off target with the conversion.

Cooney scored Ulster’s third try after 28 minutes, picking the ball up from the base of a ruck on the Connacht 22 to go under the posts, making his conversion a formality.

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Lock Joe Joyce got Connacht back in the game with a try from a driving maul three minutes later, but Josh Ioane could not convert from a tight angle.

Ulster had winger Werner Kok sin-binned for a tackle in the air a minute later.

Murphy showed the Ulster defence a clean pair off heels to ace over from long range with the clock in the red at the end of the first half and Ioane converted to cut Ulster’s advantage to 19-17 at the interval.

Ruck Speed

0-3 secs
41%
42%
3-6 secs
34%
41%
6+ secs
25%
17%
68
Rucks Won
84

Connacht had a try chalked off by the TMO three minutes into the second half as flanker Sean O’Brien was adjudged not to have grounded the ball.

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They were reduced to 14 men when lock Josh Murphy was yellow carded after 50 minutes and Ulster took immediate advantage with their bonus-point try from flanker David McCann.

The sides were level after 61 minutes as replacement hooker Dylan Tierney-Martin scored from a maul, with Ioane converting.

But then came Murphy’s sending-off and Cooney was on target with the resulting penalty.

Nick Timoney put the result beyond doubt with Ulster’s fifth try in the 78th minute before Ioane knocked over a penalty with the last kick of the game.

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Comments

1 Comment
A
A 172 days ago

Connacht were good should have won but for some home town referee decisions. The silly take from the bbc boys was silly ex. Connacht will always come prepared to a game like that and you can expect hard knocks. Connacht played with dignity and I respect them for this and I totally expect this from them. Got the 2 bp’s and should have 🏆.

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JW 1 hour ago
Razor has an about turn on All Blacks eligibility rules

Yep, another problem!


I think he would have, in the instance I mentioned, which wasn’t changing anything other than correctly applying todays eligibility quidelines. Which is an arbitrary construct, as the deal likely would have played out completely differently, but I just ‘allowed’ him to have 1 year sabbatically for his ‘loyalty’, rather than having some arbitrary number like 70 caps required.


So if Richie had a 3 year deal, and the first year he was allowed to use him still, I don’t think he’d really not transition to Dmac being his main 10, as he’s obviously the only one he can use for the following two years, therefore likely his only real option for the WC (very hard for Richie to overtake him in such a short time). Richie would purely be a security net in a situation like I proposition where there are only small changes to the eligibility.


The system is not working well enough though, as we don’t have the Rugby Championship or World Cup trophies, do we? Well on that last question, that’s all I’m really saying but I would not believe a word this author says, so it’s entirely a ‘what if’ discussion, but if the author is right and now they are actually going to be more flexible, I think that’s great yeah. Ultimately thought I think those two players were an anomaly signing their contracts and futures up so far ahead, especially of when they were performing. Both jumped at the opportunity of good contracts when their All Black prospects weren’t looking that bright.

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