A penalty try and well-taken scores from Tiernan O’Halloran and Bundee Aki guided Connacht to their first victory in Belfast since November 1960, as they deservedly got the better of 14-man Ulster.
Ulster lost flanker Matthew Rea to a red card in the opening minute of the second half, but they were already trailing 14-5 at that stage following Tiernan O’Halloran’s seven-pointer and a scrum-powered penalty try. Returning winger Jacob Stockdale dotted down at the other end.
Dan McFarland’s side got within six points thanks to a penalty from John Cooney, only for Connacht to claw back those three points via their superior scrum. Bundee Aki’s 72nd-minute intercept try had the result done and dusted until Nick Timoney’s last-minute breakaway score earned the hosts a battling losing bonus point.
On a night when Ireland stars Rory Best and Stockdale made their seasonal debuts in the white jersey, Ulster suffered their second interprovincial loss on the back of last week’s record defeat to Munster. It leaves them with plenty to work on ahead of the Heineken Champions Cup visit of Leicester Tigers.
The milestone achievement provides Connacht with a timely boost heading into their Challenge Cup campaign. As well as lifting their ‘Ravenhill curse’, the seven-point success marked only the westerners’ second away win in the GUINNESS PRO14 since April of last year.
Tireless man-of-the-match Sean O’Brien and fellow back rowers Jarrad Butler and Paul Boyle were superb for the visitors, ably assisted by Aki, Jack Carty and Caolin Blade in the backs. Timoney, Stuart McCloskey and 20-year-old centre Angus Curtis were the pick of the Ulster players.
Connacht’s long-awaited triumph at Kingspan Stadium was all the more impressive given that they lost Kieran Marmion (ankle), O’Halloran (Achilles) and Tom Farrell (HIA) to first half injuries. Blade came on inside two minutes of the kick-off after Marmion injured his ankle in attempting to block Billy Burns’ first clearance kick of the night.
Ulster exerted the early pressure but Stockdale was crowded out by O’Halloran and Niyi Adeolokun who forced him into touch near the left corner. Connacht turned their first attack into seven points, a lineout on halfway sparking a nice move involving Blade, Aki, Butler and Carty who sent Matt Healy scampering in between McCloskey and Stockdale and he slipped a final pass off for O’Halloran to scramble over in the right corner.
Unfortunately for the visitors, their bad luck with injuries continued as O’Halloran had to hobble off. The TMO review cleared Farrell of interference with McCloskey in the build-up to the try and Carty drove over a peach of a conversion for 7-0. Marcell Coetzee’s breakdown work forced a penalty in response but the navy-clad defence held out through nine phases.
Andy Friend’s charges entered the second quarter with a 14-0 advantage thanks to their dominant scrum. Having leaked a penalty further out, the Ulster set piece then collapsed on two occasions just five metres out. Andrew Warwick was the guilty party, as he went down under pressure from Finlay Bealham who is bang in form. A free-kick followed before Connacht splintered the scrum and forced a well-earned penalty try.
That brought out a try-scoring response from Ulster just five minutes later, Connacht losing possession in their 22 after an Aki rip and Burns’ cross-field kick over to left evaded a leaping Caolin Blade and in swooped Stockdale to finish before tumbling out of play. TMO Olly Hodges confirmed the returning winger’s score which Cooney was unable to convert.
Ulster’s attempts to get into double figures were thwarted by a couple of near misses. TMO Hodges highlighted Stockdale being offside from Angus Kernohan’s kick through, which saw the teenage winger’s opportunist score chalked off, while it was an even tighter call on the left wing when Peter Nelson was deemed to be just ahead of Stockdale before grounding the Ireland winger’s kick past the whitewash.
Connacht also went close to adding to their try tally, a dangerous grubber kick from Carty bounced up high but the covering Nelson got to it just before Aki. Ulster’s Jekyll and Hyde performance continued as they failed to profit from a snappy Cooney break off a lost Connacht lineout, and the first half ended with Coetzee dispatched to the bin for a high tackle on replacement centre Kyle Godwin.
It got even worse for McFarland’s men when Rea upended Cian Kelleher as the pair competed for Burns’ restart kick as the second half got underway, resulting in referee Andrew Brace brandishing his red card following a TMO review. A well-won McCloskey penalty briefly lifted the 13 men, but an O’Brien steal and an Aki break into the 22 kept Connacht on the front foot.
Good work from McCloskey and Timoney propelled Ulster downfield, although a Cooney missed penalty let Connacht off the hook for an offside on their 10-metre line. The scrum half made no mistake with a similar place-kick barely two minutes later, punishing Denis Buckley for a ruck infringement.
Ulster survived two breaks from Boyle, the first off a scrum won against the head, and Connacht’s patience was tested as their own wrong options and Ulster’s defensive grit left them unable to move the scoreboard. That was until Ulster replacement prop Eric O’Sullivan was pinged for a binding offence and Carty’s successful 67th-minute penalty made it 17-8.
After Ulster blew a gilt-edged maul opportunity soon after, with Connacht defending brilliantly in their 22, Aki cleverly read a midfield move between replacements Johnny McPhillips and James Hume, intercepting on the halfway line and galloping clear to score to the right of the posts.
Number 8 Timoney finally gave the Kingspan Stadium faithful something to shout about with a very well-taken try in the dying seconds. He showed an impressive turn of pace to evade the chasers after McCloskey had initially spun out of a tackle, darted up towards halfway and fed the onrushing Dubliner.
Cooney’s quick conversion ensured there was still time for a final restart and the prospect of a last-ditch draw. McCloskey was able to carry Ulster back up to halfway, but Connacht replacement Shane Delahunt swooped in at the breakdown, a couple of phases later, to poach possession and allow Carty to gleefully kick the ball dead.
Reflecting on the game, Connacht head coach Friend said: “I thought (the forwards) were brilliant. I thought they laid a platform for us. What has been nice is that we’ve shown we can attack in the back-three, shown we can attack through the centres, and now we have a pack who give us some real go-forward too. To have the ability to strike from any of those areas is pleasing. But we’ll keep working on it.
“Ulster are a very proud team. Down to 14 men, down to 13 men for a period, they challenged our breakdown. We talked about our groundwork, talked about our shield getting close early but they were probably too quick for us there. Credit to them, but we’ve to learn from that and learn how to make it easier on ourselves.
“There’s a focus we have with our defence coach Pete Wilkins, ball awareness focus. The boys have bought into that big time. So they’re not just defending the man, they’re defending the ball. What we saw with Bundee was his anticipation and hunger, but also part of the system that Pete put in place.
“The other thing we’ve been focusing on is our bounce; getting back on our feet. We did that really well. We kept getting back on our feet and making tackles. We saw Ulster needed to score, they threw a lot at us in those last 10 minutes and our boys kept bouncing up and making tackles.”
Ulster’s try-scoring back rower Timoney commented: “We can take the fact that it was a lot better than last week. Last week it felt like we were a good bit off the pace and it didn’t feel like we were (this week). We weren’t much away from winning that game.
“We get into a habit of thinking things are worse than they are. Like, we went into that Munster game having not lost in nine games. The last two weeks, they’re not ideal, but we don’t turn into a bad team overnight. We’re not a million miles away.
“I thought the red card was pretty unlucky. It probably is a red by the laws of the game but Matty has all eyes on the ball so there isn’t anything he can do about it. If anything, we raised it another level during those times when we were down men. It wasn’t like we went down to 13 and they were all over us from that point on. I think we played pretty well during that time.”
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