Ulster and Connacht make valuable points

Connacht 20 Ulster 27: Ulster’s title hopes and Connacht’s less ambitious but equally important Champions Cup qualification dreams both remain on target after a seven-try Pro 12 thriller at the Galway Sportsground.

A clinically superior Ulster took the five points on offer; Connacht had to be satisfied to carve out a losing bonus point. And results elsewhere deemed both have kept their respective ambitions alive. Scarlets’ last-gasp win over Zebre keeps the Welsh outfit level on points with Pat Lam’s men, while Munster, although overtaking Ulster, did Connacht the biggest favour with their demolition of Edinburgh.

“That’s the beauty of this competition at the moment,” said Pat Lam, “it will go down to the wire and it’s exciting for everyone. It’s hard to tell how many points we will need (to secure European qualification). Our aim is to get as many as we can because it could well depend on other results. Look at Zebre, they were 30 seconds away from doing us a favour. All we can control is making sure we come out and try to get the win against Glasgow.”