Faloon: Ulster deserved to win

Stand-in Conncaht captain Willie Faloon admitted his side were second best in Friday night’s 25-0 RaboDirect PRO12 defeat to Ulster.

Mark Anscombe’s men continued their 100% start to the season with a comfortable victory in their first home game since the death of Nevin Spence.

A penalty try was followed by a five pointer from man-of-the-match Nick Williams on the stroke of halftime and the Ulstermen looked poised to claim a bonus point after a one-sided opening half.

But the Northern Province lost their scoring touch in the second half thanks in part to a tireless defensive effort from Conncaht but Paul Marshall breached the rearguard once more on 78 minutes to wrap up the victory.

Former Ulsterman Faloon had no complaints about the final score admitting that Ulster were clinical on the night.

“We were a team that was hungry and we defended well,” he said.

“But we let the ball slip through and we were putting ourselves under a lot of pressure. Ulster are a strong, physical side and they made little to no errors – they deserved the win.”

The result prevented Connacht from building on their magnificent 34-6 triumph over Leinster in the Sportsground.

Eric Elwood’s men now lie tenth in the PRO12 but their attention will turn to European matters as they kick off their second season in the Heineken Cup against Zebre on Saturday.

As impressive as the win over Leinster was Faloon knows it is of little value unless that level of performance can be reproduced and he is hopeful of a big game against Zebre to get them back on track after the defeat to Ulster.

“Last week was fantastic but, like we’ve said, it means nothing when you can’t back it up the following week.

“But we’ll bounce straight back with the Heineken Cup next week.

“Zebre is going to be a tough test and everyone is looking forward to it already. It’s going to be disappointing after tonight but we have to look forward to next week now”