Connacht edge out Ulster
Ulster's play-off ambitions suffered a setback at the Sportsground as Connacht held on for a deserved 26-21 victory on Saturday.
Last Updated: 14/04/12 7:53pm
Ulster's play-off ambitions suffered a setback at the Sportsground as Connacht held on for a deserved RaboDirect PRO12 derby 26-21 victory on Saturday.
Miah Nikora and captain Gavin Duffy broke through for Connacht tries in a bruising first-half, but young centre Paddy Jackson kicked Ulster into a 16-13 interval lead.
Tiernan O'Halloran struck for his fifth try of the league campaign, only for Jackson to dot down in the 53rd minute and keep the visitors on course.
A Nikora penalty nudged Connacht back in front and there was then no stopping them from securing their first win over Ulster since December 2005.
With their confidence boosted by a recent away win over the Dragons, Connacht started in impressive fashion and Nikora soon put them ahead with a third minute penalty.
Ulster's Ian Humphreys snatched at a kickable penalty into the wind, and the hosts stretched their lead to 8-0 with Nikora's nimble try - the fly-half darting between Robbie Diack and Adam D'Arcy to touch down next to the posts.
The try was unconverted and the loss of Brett Wilkinson and Ray Ofisa through injury, coupled with Ronan Loughney's sin-binning for a late challenge on Humphreys, hampered Connacht.
Ireland Under-20 captain Jackson took over the place-kicking duties from Humphreys and drove over two inviting penalties to get the visitors off the mark in the second quarter.
Well-taken try
Connacht hit back on the half-hour as precise passes from Henry Fa'afili and Kyle Tonetti released Duffy down the right wing and he cut in past Stefan Terblanche for a well-taken five-pointer.
But Ulster enjoyed a strong finish to the half with scrum-half Paul Marshall nipping in for a try after picking from the base of a close-in ruck.
Marshall injured himself in the act of scoring and Ruan Pienaar, Ulster's Heineken Cup hero from last Sunday, took to the pitch in his stead.
Jackson continued his impressive kicking display by landing the conversion and added a crisply-struck late penalty to edge Brian McLaughlin's charges ahead at the interval.
It was a short-lived lead, though, as just three minutes into the second half a lovely one-handed offload from John Muldoon sent O'Halloran scurrying along the touchline and over in the right corner past Pienaar.
Nikora's superb conversion made it 20-16 to the westerners, but they could not shake off their opponents and Ulster hit back to retake the lead when centre Nevin Spence helped to drive Jackson over from a couple of metres out. The try-scorer missed the conversion
Nikora nailed a penalty on the hour mark to make it 23-21 to Connacht and the obvious tension spilled over when Michael Swift and Lewis Stevenson were sin-binned for an off-the-ball scrap.
Connacht had a grip of territory in the closing stages and, when Ulster replacement Ali Birch was yellow-carded for hands in the ruck, they gave themselves some breathing space as a final penalty from 16-point hero Nikora clinched the result.
