Ulster returned to winning ways in the best possible fashion after seeing off Connacht in a nine-try inter-pro classic 32-27.
First-half tries from John Andrew, Jude Postlethwaite and John Cooney put Ulster in the driving seat. But Connacht rallied and tries from Shayne Bolton, Joe Joyce and Ben Murphy replied cut what was at one point a 12-point deficit to just two at half-time.
Midway through the second half Connacht drew level at 24-all, and it looked like the visitors were heading for a third straight win.
However, a red card to Connacht second row Josh Murphy for a head-on-head collision with Ulster’s James McCormick saw the pendulum swing in Ulster’s favour.
Nick Timoney then confirmed the victory as he marked his 150th appearance in an Ulster shirt by scoring winning try in the dying minutes.
Ulster head coach Richie Murphy was delighted on how his side got back to winning ways, particularly after a tough couple of weeks in South Africa.
“Firstly, I suppose I’m delighted with the five points,” said Murphy.
“To come back from South Africa, obviously a lot of pressure on us to perform and I thought in a lot of periods of the game we did really well.
“I thought the commitment was there from the start and the physicality was right up. Guys were going for it early on in the game. Probably lost our way a little bit at times and you know, turned over some easy ball in midfield, and we probably didn’t kick the ball enough.
“And Connacht, the way they are playing at the moment, with loads of confidence, playing really good rugby, capitalised on some of our mistakes.”
Racing into a 19-5 lead with less than half an hour on the clock, it was beginning to look like Ulster were going to run away with the tie.
But when the going got tough, Ulster’s young guns stuck to their task and dug in for a crucial victory. Something that Murphy took great satisfaction from.
“We went in two-points ahead when it felt like we should’ve been twelve-points up. So, we showed good character to come out and finish it off.
“Towards the back end of the game we were pretty young.
“James McCormick came on had a big impact. His fourth cap in a row and fourth cap overall. And he has shown that he can play at this level and he’s shown a nice bit of physicality.
“Corrie (Barrett) comes in late on in the game and the scrum is nice and steady again. Ben Carson comes in for Jude (Postlethwaite) and the two-lads are the same age. They’re 22-years of age each.
“So’s there’s lots of positives in relation to building the depth and building the competition within the squad.”
With both sides boasting backlines of power and finesse, it was somewhat a surprise that seven of the nine tries came from forwards as the respective packs gave textbook demonstrations on how to execute the perfect maul try.
“It’s really satisfying,” said Murphy who was more than happy with the overall showing of his pack after they received some strong critique for their performances in South Africa.
“Jimmy’s (Duffy) done a lot of work over the last while and probably where some of the games, we mightn’t have quite seen where we’ve got to with it, I think tonight against a really good defensive maul team, it was good to see it move forward.”
The win was marred with injuries to Iain Henderson and Postlethwaite, but Murphy is confident that both players will make a quick return to action.
