Dan McFarland enjoys Ulster’s PRO14 victory over Connacht

Ulster coach Dan McFarland was pleased with certain aspects of the performance in the 35-3 bonus point victory over Connacht at Kingspan Stadium on Friday night.
By The Newsroom
Published 27th Dec 2019, 23:01 BST
Updated 27th Dec 2019, 23:30 BST
Ulster’s Robert Baloucoune and Tiernan O’Halloran of Connacht attempt to ground the ballUlster’s Robert Baloucoune and Tiernan O’Halloran of Connacht attempt to ground the ball
Ulster’s Robert Baloucoune and Tiernan O’Halloran of Connacht attempt to ground the ball

“To win an important match 35-3, to score five tries and not concede any I thought we defended really well, we’re a little bit disappointed in some of our attack, we lost a lot of lineouts but if you win a game 35-3 you have to be pretty happy,” said McFarland.

“We scored in multiple ways and we scored through multiple phases, there was a potency to our attack when we held onto the ball.”

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After conceding eight tries last week Ulster limited Connacht to a solitary penalty.

Connacht's Stephen Fitzgerald and Conor Fitzgerald dejected after the loss to UlsterConnacht's Stephen Fitzgerald and Conor Fitzgerald dejected after the loss to Ulster
Connacht's Stephen Fitzgerald and Conor Fitzgerald dejected after the loss to Ulster

“The section where we defended 30 phases was excellent, we got a yellow card and we had only given two penalties away in a six minute period there which was a little bit odd, but the lads fought hard which they always do and we stopped them getting across our line which I thought was excellent.”

McFarland thought Ulster could have won the game by more if they had been more clinical in attack.

“Some of the edge attacks we turned over in terms of our line out we didn’t win enough ball and I think if we had of done that we would have put a lot more points on them but 35-3 against a quality side like Connacht is pleasing.”

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“We feel with the amount of pressure we had out there we should have scored more tries, we made a few mistakes on the edge which could cost us next week (against Munster). we shipped a lot of possession and turned a lot of possession over that we shouldn’t have done.”

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