A flash of individual brilliance from Craig Gilroy was enough to warm up a wet and wintry Kingspan Stadium tonight as Ulster edged out provincial rivals Connacht in a hard-fought 13-10 victory.
Craig Gilroy’s whirlwind first half try, backed up by eight points from the boot of the returning Paddy Jackson and some dogged defending in unforgiving conditions, sealed Ulster’s seventh league win of the season and fourth place in the GUINNESS PRO12 standings at the midway point of the campaign.
Connacht made the early running, attacking with pace down both wings in the opening moments, and securing a well-deserved penalty dispatched by out-half Jack Carty on four minutes.
Stuart Olding was soon in the heart of the action, spectacularly sliding across the turf to retrieve a Connacht clearance and as the visitors infringed at the breakdown, Jackson put his first kick of the evening just inches wide of the posts.
The Ireland out-half made no such mistake on 14 minutes after Connacht had been pulled up for offside, and he was also instrumental in the build-up to the game’s opening try just five minutes late.
A quick interchange between half-backs Paul Marshall and Jackson invited Gilroy through a gap and into the Connacht 22. The winger showed great poise and guile to pirouette his way through three tackles and touch down to the left of the posts.
Jackson added the extras for a 10-3 scoreline, before he was off target with another errant penalty in the 26th minute as the Ulstermen began to turn the screw.
Despite all of the hosts’ dominance of possession and territory, it was Connacht who ended the first half in the ascendancy, camping out in the home 22 for a good four minutes before the whistle. However, Pat Lam’s charges were unable to breach a solid Ulster defence line.
The second period followed the same understated rhythm as had the first until it moved up a gear in the 51st minute, Gilroy breaking through along the left wing only for play to be pulled back for an offload from Dan Tuohy that went forward.
A strong line-break from Olding quickly followed, before some incisive kicking into the corner from Marshall put the westerners under extreme pressure five metres from their line.
However, Connacht defended well at the lineout and a subsequent five-metre scrum – something they did on a consistent basis – keeping Ulster at bay well into the game’s final quarter when Jackson slotted over a penalty from close range.
Connacht still had an ace to play, however, pulling themselves back to within three points on 66 minutes courtesy of a well-execited Aly Muldowney try from a rolling maul (pictured below), converted by Carty.
With 10 minutes remaining and the result hanging in the balance, yet more muscular work from the Connacht forwards got the visitors inside the Ulster 22 until a fine tackle from Tuohy disrupted their advances and forced a knock-on.
A final Ulster foray into Connacht territory in the 78th minute petered out with a maul infringement, but the three-point success was enough to ensure Neil Doak’s side finished 2014 in a play-off position in the PRO12 table.
Notably, a gritty collective performance earned a well-merited losing bonus point for Connacht, which marked their first time to pick up something at the Belfast venue since their last win there in 1960. It was certainly a huge improvement on their 58-12 loss to Ulster in April.
Doak said afterwards: “We got the job done in the end, but obviously we’re a little bit frustrated with the dominance we had up front and the fact we didn’t get our just rewards.
“When you look at the game I thought we were pretty dominant but didn’t get the just rewards to be honest. Connacht are a dogged side and it was difficult playing conditions and it’s always tight when you’re 10-3 and you’ve got dominance.”
His Connacht counterpart Lam admitted: “Some pretty tough calls out there. Ultimately, two weeks in a row, we have fought hard against Leinster and Ulster now and with five minutes on the clock we have had opportunities to win it…we certainly want more.
“We hung in there and as history would show it’s not an easy place to go and get the win. We are certainly closing the gap on the other three (provinces).”
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