Ulster beat Connacht 32-27 in a breathless inter-pro scrap with Connacht when Nick Timoney marked his 150th appearance for the province with the clinching try at the Kingspan Stadium on Saturday.
The Dubliner’s 78th minute score, which came while the visitors were down to 14 men following Josh Murphy’s red card seven minutes earlier, was Ulster’s fifth try on a breathless night when they led by as much as 14 in the first half but were scrambling to stay on level terms in the final quarter.
In the end, Richie Murphy’s side collected maximum points, while Connacht headed back to Galway with a couple of match points in the bag themselves thanks to four tries and a losing bonus.
As well as Timoney, John Andrew, Jude Postlethwaite, John Cooney, and David McCann crossed for Ulster, with Cooney adding two conversions and a crucial late penalty. Shayne Bolton, Joe Joyce, Ben Murphy – son of the Ulster coach - and Dylan Tierney-Martin scored tries for Connacht with Josh Ioane also kicking a couple of conversions and a penalty.
Ulster’s first chance and first score came from their first mistake. Connacht pinched a lineout on the 10-metre line but couldn’t get the ball cleared before being penalised for holding on. Aidan Morgan sent the penalty into the Connacht 22 and this time hooker Andrew found his man with Iain Henderson claiming the throw to set up a maul that trundled over with Andrew at the back of it to touch down with barely two minutes gone. Cooney added the conversion.
A couple of Ulster penalties, Henderson holding on then Jacob Stockdale coming in at the side of a ruck, allowed Connacht to make their way into Ulster’s 22.
Ulster’s defence in the tight held up but Connacht found space on the outside with Ioane’s double miss-pass sending Bolton over in the corner. Ioane missed the touchline conversion.
On the quarter-hour mark Ulster lost captain Iain Henderson, who wouldn’t return following a HIA, after a head-on-head hit from Dave Heffernan that inexplicably didn’t merit action from either referee Andrew Brace or the TMO.
Alan O’Connor came on for his 200th appearance, a landmark shared by prop Andy Warwick, and Ulster regained their seven-point advantage when Jude Postlethwaite managed to finally get over after Connacht repelled several digs at the line. Cooney missed the conversion but added seven points soon after when he picked up from a ruck and scampered through untouched before converting.
That put Ulster 19-5 up but Connacht hit back when a burst from Josh Murphy got Ulster turned around and scrambling at the next ruck, conceding a penalty. Ioane kicked to the corner and it was Connacht’s turn to rumble over, with lock Joyce applying the finish. Ioane pulled his conversion effort from the right touchline.
Werner Kok got his timing wrong from the kick-off and saw yellow for taking out Josh Murphy in the air. Initially, Connacht couldn’t take advantage, with Ulster’s tackling on point a man down as the visitors tried to stretch the pitch with their man advantage in the backs.
But with the clock in the red Ulster couldn’t see out the half, penalised on their own ball at the ruck before some backchat saw Brace march them further towards their own posts.
Ioane kicked for touch and, just as Cooney had done for Ulster, Connacht’s nine Ben Murphy was alive to a gap, darting through the lineout and away for his side’s third try. Ioane finally found his range from the conversion to reduce Connacht’s half-time deficit to two, 19-17 to Ulster.
Another Ulster ruck penalty followed by more dissent gave Connacht the platform to send Sean O’Brien over the line at the start of the second half but, after Brace gave the try, the TMO intervened to let him know the openside was clearly held up.
Ulster quickly got down the other end when turnover ball was kicked ahead by Stockdale and hacked on by Cooney. Connacht stopped the maul from Ulster’s five-metre lineout and turned it over, but then made a mess of their own scrum. Mack Hansen was bundled out and wouldn’t let go of the ball and the upshot of the schemozzle it prompted was an Ulster penalty. Josh Murphy infringed from the subsequent lineout and was sin-binned, which Ulster made pay immediately. Connacht stalled the maul again but couldn’t stop David McCann burrowing over for the bonus-point try and a 24-17 lead after 51 minutes. Cooney missed the conversion.
Connacht were on level terms in the 60th minute when Bolton kicked through and put Ethan McElroy under pressure, with the Ulster full-back’s skewed clearance giving Connacht another attacking opportunity from a lineout maul, this one finished by replacement hooker Dylan Tierney-Martin. Ioane converted to make it 24 apiece.
Connacht having parity for the first time since the second minute energised the westerners and super covering work from Nathan Doak, mopping up Hansen’s kick through on the line, kept them out.
In the 71st minute, Josh Murphy delivered his shoulder directly to the chin of James McCormick off the ball for as red a card as you’ll ever see. Cooney kicked the penalty to push Ulster into a 27-24 lead.
Ioane immediately got the chance to reply when a high tackle gave Connacht a kickable penalty, but he went for the corner instead and didn’t get near it as he tried to take too much and booted the ball dead. A relieving free kick at the scrum let Ulster send the ball down the other end.
Five minutes to survive but with the extra man Ulster went for the kill. Ben Carson kicked when he should have kept it in hand but Connacht were bundled into touch on their line and the Ulster maul put it to bed with Nick Timoney breaking away to touch down on his 150th appearance. Cooney missed the conversion but it didn’t matter. 32-24 became 32-27 and gave Connacht a losing bonus point to go with the one for four tries when Stockdale made a mess of the kick-off and this time Ioane did go for the posts – successfully – after Ulster conceded a scrum penalty.
