Ulster too hot for Connacht

Ulster 41 Connacht 10

Tries by Simon Danielli, Ian Humphreys, Andy Kyriacou, Ian Whitten, Dan Tuohy and Jamie Smith did the damage in a game Ulster never looked like losing. Humphreys also weighed in with three conversion and a penalty from his trusty left boot.

Connacht rarely got into their stride and looked out of sorts following their heroics at the tail-end of the season. All their points coming in a ragged first half with fly-half Ian Keatley converting Ronan Loughney’s try as well as kicking a lone penalty.

Visiting Ireland coaches Les Kiss and Ger Smal must have winced when hooker Rory Best hobbled off with what looked like a serious ankle injury to add to the growing list of wounded international forwards.

However, it was Keatley who got game up and running after only three minutes with a 30-metre strike after the first of a number of untidy set-pieces.

Then Danielli was put clear by Ian Whitten before the Scottish winger kicked over the Connacht defence for a fortuitous touchdown.

Ulster stretched their lead in the 29th minute, when Humphreys charged down a Keatley clearance to touch down near the posts and converted.

Connacht rallied when Keatley found an excellent touch in the corner and as the front-row peeled around the back it was loose-head Loughney who stretched over the line. Keatley converted to make it a two-point game at the break.

Connacht re-started in a more orderly fashion but Ulster stretched their lead.

Full-back Jamie Smith’s accelerated entry into the line allowed Trimble to burst through and shift a pass to the supportingKyriacou, who barged through to score with his first touch of the ball. Humphreys converted as Ulster pushed out a 19-10 lead.

With Ulster very much in the ascendancy, their bonus-point try arrived with due simplicity in the 57th minute, centre Whitten driving up the middle off a deft pass by Humphreys who converted from in front of the posts. The game died after that and was only lit up by more Ulster tries from Tuohy and Smith.

ULSTER: J Smith; A Trimble, D Cave, I Whitten, S Danielli; I Humphreys, P Marshall; T Court, R Best (capt), BJ Botha, E O’Donoghue, D Tuohy, TJ Anderson, W Faloon, R Diack.

Replacements: A Kyriacou for Best (43), B Young for Botha (64), R Caldwell for O’Donoghue (67), A Birch for Anderson (76), I Boss for Marshall (54) , N O’Connor for Humphreys (67), T Nagusa for Cave (55).

CONNACHT: G Duffy; B Tuohy, N Ta’auso, A Wynne, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy; R Loughney, S Cronin, J Hagan; M McCarthy, B Upton; J Muldoon (capt), M McComish, G Naoupu.

Replacements: A Flavin for Cronin (64), B Wilkinson for Loughney (43), A Browne for McCarthy (31), C O’Loughlin for Murphy (69), M Nikora for Keatley (54), T Nathan for Ta’auso (65).

Referee: D Phillips (IRFU).