Strong Finish Sees Connacht Complete Hat-Trick Of Home Wins

Cool-headed Connacht came from 17 points down to beat Ulster 22-20 and avoid their first defeat at the Sportsground since last December.

Captain Jack Carty put a penalty miss behind him to send Diarmuid Kilgallen over for the decisive 73rd-minute try, as the westerners completed a hat-trick of early season BKT United Rugby Championship home wins.

Carty’s opposite number Jake Flannery was emerging as the hero of the hour, tagging two penalties onto his snappily-taken 33rd-minute try as Ulster lead 13-3 at half-time.

His half-back partner Dave Shanahan dotted down to make it 20-3, but centres Cathal Forde and Tom Farrell both crossed during a crucial five-minute spell for Pete Wilkins’ men.

Injury-hit Ulster came under further pressure and despite Carty missing a chance to go level, he soon picked out winger Kilgallen to complete a memorable comeback.

Speaking in the aftermath, Connacht head coach Wilkins said: “It’s a fantastic result for us. We said to the lads downstairs, there are days when you play great rugby and are entertaining everyone and you earned he right to win in that way, and there are other days when you have to dig in and show a heck of a lot of character to come from behind, and that’s what we did today.

“If we can do those things when they’re required, the lads will be a good match for anyone. I’m really proud of them, and I think we deserved the win today, albeit in a different way to the previous weeks.

“I think the boys’ composure and trust in the way we want to play the game is massive and I think that’s when you do start to see momentum turn.

“I think if you’re panicking and trying to pull tries out of nowhere and you’re relying on one individual to spark a bit of magic, I think that’s when you get those inconsistencies in games.

“For us, when we’ve clicked we’ve doubled down on what we’re doing well. That shows a maturity about how the lads are approaching the game, but also real belief in how we want to go about it.”

There was early disruption for both sides as a nasty clash of heads meant Shamus Hurley-Langton and Ulster debutant Reuben Crothers had to be replaced. A hamstring injury also saw Will Addison pulled from the visitors’ starting XV before kick-off.

“The first half, I thought we were excellent, defensively I thought we were excellent. We’ll be gutted in the end that we had opportunities to win that game ourselves,” admitted Ulster head coach Dan McFarland afterwards.

“We had 20 guys unavailable this week and we’d always decided that this was two six-day turnarounds in a row, so certain guys were going to be brought in to freshen things up and get opportunities, and also because they’d been doing well over pre-season.

“Coming into this game I watched Connacht, I thought they were playing some of the best rugby in the league at the moment.

“They had nearly as strong a team as they could put out, minus a couple of guys back from the World Cup. We knew it was going to be a big test for us.

“We’ve come up here in the same situation in previous years and won, and we were confident that that was possible, and proved that it was possible. We just didn’t get it over the line.”

Connacht’s veteran full-back Tiernan O’Halloran beat three defenders on a brilliant break which lit up the early stages of this interprovincial derby, but the supporting Jarrad Butler was hauled down short.

Carty and Flannery traded penalties just past the 20-minute mark, and while Caolin Blade fizzed around the fringes, the Ulster defence was giving little away.

Indeed, when Harry Sheridan swept through from a ruck near the halfway line, he reached the Connacht 22 before expertly offloading for Flannery to finish under the posts.

Connacht were stung further when Conor Oliver was penalised for crossing just two minutes later, and Flannery took the points on offer.

As Ulster resumed with a 10-point lead, James Hume’s slick one-handed offload released Bangor speedster Aaron Sexton on a nicely-angled run within two minutes of the restart.

He hurtled towards the Connacht 22 before combining with scrum half Shanahan who cleverly evaded the chasing O’Halloran to cross just to the left of the posts. Flannery converted to complete his 15-point haul.

The in-form Forde led the westerners’ response, cutting a clever line to get in behind the posts. Carty’s extras restored the 10-point gap.

Connacht probed off another solid maul before nice hands from prop Jack Aungier and Carty put Farrell over in the left corner. The skipper also nailed the conversion, leaving it 20-17.

Flannery pushed a kickable penalty wide and Ethan McIlroy then blew a gilt-edged Ulster overlap, putting too much on his pass after doing the hard work to break the defensive line.

The hosts took a grip on the closing stages, staying composed despite Cian Prendergast being held up over the whitewash and Carty’s subsequent penalty miss.

Much to the home crowd’s relief, a dinked kick from Carty saw Kilgallen go over untouched in the left corner. Ulster were unable to hit back and had to dig in to avoid conceding a late bonus point score.

Flannery, Ulster’s scorer-in-chief, was influential for the first 50 minutes, while David McCann, who replaced Crothers early on, Nick Timoney and Hume also had some big plays.

Carty was a key man for Connacht down the final stretch, but the BKT URC player-of-the-match honour went to openside Oliver for another industrious display, particularly in defence where he proved a menace for Ulster to deal with.