Ulster 'hanging on for dear life' but Dan McFarland celebrates welcome win

The victory was Ulster’s first in four games.

Leading 22-8 with four minutes remaining, Ulster were left to hang on for a two-point victory after Jack Carty missed a conversion with the last kick of the game to salvage a draw for Connacht.

“I thought it was a very up and down game and Connacht did extremely well to come back at the end there,” said McFarland. “In the first half we had five opportunities in their 22 and we came away with one try...and from our perspective that wasn’t good enough.

”We were playing into a bit of a wind in the second half and I thought our chase game was excellent.

“We put them under pressure, we made them make kicking errors and that allowed us to get into positions where we could get our maul going and in the end that was the difference between the two teams.

“Plenty of teams come to the Sportsground and have nail-biting ends to the game and, to be honest, Connacht come out on the winning side of that most of the time.

“I’ve been watching and involved with Connacht a long time, the persistence they have in this side means you can never rest.

"At the end we were hanging on for dear life.”

Two of Ulster’s three tries came from the maul.

“Connacht are a smart team with smart coaches and they got the better of us on a number of occasions around the maul with smart ideas,” said McFarland. “But our guys adapted within that and did well to get the scores.”

Ulster seemingly had the points wrapped up leading 22-8 with four minutes remaining but two tries from Connacht gave Jack Carty a chance to salvage a draw for the home team.

But his last-kick-of-the-game conversion went wide.

Ulster wasted a couple of early chances in the Connacht 22.

Following good carries for Tom Stewart and Nathan Doak, Alan O’Connor drove for the line but the Connacht defence were able to win a turnover.

From a penalty, Ulster kicked to the corner from the lineout, Stewart overthrew the ball and the home side were able to hack down the pitch to safety.

Ulster had another chance to break the deadlock when Ethan McIlroy intercepted Carty’s pass in midfield but the winger didn’t have the pace to go all the way and the Connacht out half got back to make a tackle and dislodge the ball.

Ulster finally made the pressure count in the 29th minute. From a penalty they went to the corner from the lineout, the forwards hammered at the Connacht line before the backs had a go.

Luke Marshall crashed through, his attempted pass to the wing was batted down by Tiernan O’Halloran, Rob Lyttle was quickest to react, kicking on and winning the race to dot down. John Cooney’s conversion attempt was wide.

Carty opened Connacht’s account with a 35th-minute penalty after Stuart McCloskey was caught offside in midfield to reduce Ulster’s half-time lead to 5-3.

Ulster went to their tried-and-tested driving maul for their second try five minutes after the restart. Doak nudged a penalty to the corner, Connacht appeared to have repelled the first drive from the lineout but Ulster gained momentum and Stewart was propelled over with Cooney converting.

Stewart’s second try on 54 minutes was a carbon copy of his first - Connacht were penalised close to their line, Ulster went to touch, from the lineout the forwards set up the maul and the hooker peeled off to go over, with Cooney converting.

Connacht got a try with their first sustained period of pressure in the Ulster 22. They went to touch from a penalty, with the maul scrum half Caolin Blade took the ball off his forwards and darted over for an unconverted score.

Stewart was denied his hat-trick when, from another rolling maul, Peter Dooley and Blade were able to stop him grounding the ball.

Surprisingly, Ulster turned down a chance to go to the corner to secure a bonus point – instead Cooney knocked over an easy penalty.

Ulster replacement flanker Greg Jones was yellow-carded on 76 for being offside.

Cian Prendergast had a try disallowed for accidental offside, however, they had an advantage and from the resulting penalty Jarrad Butler powered over, with Carty converting.

Connacht went from their own 22, with Adam Byrne over in the corner with the clock in the red to set up Carty’s conversion.

ULSTER: M Lowry, E McIlroy, L Marshall, S McCloskey, R Lyttle, N Doak, J Cooney, R Sutherland, T Stewart, M Moore, A O’Connor, I Henderson (capt), D McCann, M Rea, N Timoney.

Replacements: J Andrew for Stewart 80 mins, E O’Sullivan for Sutherland 65 mins, G Milasinovich for M Moore 51 mins, S Carter for O’Connor 52 mins, G Jones for McCann 57 mins, D Shanahan for Cooney 80 mins, J Flannery for Marshall 80 mins, S Moore for Lowry 41 mins