Ulster coach Dan McFarland rues early concessions against Connacht

Dan McFarland felt his side left themselves too much to do after they had conceded first quarter tries to Connacht in last night's Guinness PRO14 21-12 loss at The Sportsground, Galway.
By The Newsroom
Published 29th Dec 2018, 07:30 BST
Updated 10th Jan 2019, 11:10 BST
Connacht's Caolin Blade celebrates scoring a try with Kyle Godwin and Jack CartyConnacht's Caolin Blade celebrates scoring a try with Kyle Godwin and Jack Carty
Connacht's Caolin Blade celebrates scoring a try with Kyle Godwin and Jack Carty

Ulster, who had won their last four games, but travelled with few of their ‘big guns’ opened poorly and were hit by two Connacht scores in eight minutes.

And although they rallied after that to win the remainder of the game 12-7, they had simply not produced enough quality play to really put decent pressure on the home side.

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The victory for Connacht - their third successive win over Ulster since the 1950s - was also the first season double in the Celtic League competition.

Nineteen-year-old winger Angus Kernohan’s 32nd-minute try from a Cian Kelleher fumble had got Ulster back in the match following converted scores from Shane Delahunt and Bundee Aki as the visitors trailed 14-7 at the break.

Caolin Blade and Jordi Murphy swapped second-half tries, the latter opening his Ulster account, but they failed to capitalise during the sin-binning of Connacht’s Ultane Dillane, instead defending their line furiously to deny the hosts a bonus point.

The loss leaves Ulster second in Conference B, but it opens the door for Scarlets to snatch that from them later today.

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“It does not matter where you go, if you turn the ball over six times in the first 15-20 minutes and find yourselves 14-0 down, it makes for a difficult night,” said McFarland.

“After that we scored 12 points they scored seven, and we could have had more.

“I felt their try at the beginning of the second half was offside - I know it went to the TMO and it was difficult to make a decision on it due to the camera angle.

“Over the two fixtures we lost out to two tries which were six inches offside .

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“But yes, 14-0 down when you are not playing well, it is going to be difficult,” added McFarland.

However, McFarland was able to take some positives from the response of his team to their poor start.

“As a coaching group we said to them at half time we were proud of the way they had fought their way back into it,” added McFarland.

“That was a situation where we could so easily have been knocked over. But we got back on our feet and dominated large parts of the game. We still managed to score a couple of tries but it ultimately was not enough.”

MORE RUGBY: Ps 58-59

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