Connacht 6 Ulster 30

Ulster moved up to forth place with a bonus point win against Connacht at a packed Sportsground on Friday night.

Despite Ulster’s comfortable win this was probably their least impressive performance, outside of the defeat by the Dragons, in the League this season. In the games, against Ospreys and Edinburgh, Ulster had gotten torn into their opponents from the off, but this game was won at a much more gentle canter.

The first half was a scrappy affair with both sides making plenty of errors. Ulster scored an early try through Cave in the first five minutes and then appeared to sit back and soak up Connacht pressure for the remainder of the half. Despite coping reasonably comfortably with anything thrown at them they did give away two penalties to bring the half time score to 6 – 7, which was scant reward for the gulf in class.

Fortunately, after a rocketing at half time, Ulster scored another try within a few minutes of the re-start with Botha barging over from close in after two minutes and the game was effectively over. Connacht continued to huff and puff but Ulster soaked it up comfortably and scored two more tries in the last ten minutes with Nagusa skipping past Duffy to dot down and Humphreys capped a fine performance bagging the bonus point score by squeezing in in the corner.

In the end I was a little disappointed by this display. OK, it was more clinical than passionate and Ulster were well worth their win but I did miss the frenetic pace of previous games. Maybe it is a sign of growing confidence within the team but I just hope they are able to switch on the passion when required, not always easy!

Two wins on the road is a good return, but now’s the time to get things sorted at Ravers for the game against Scarlets.

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Here’s Our Ratings in The Headmasters Report!

15. Clinton Schifcofske	A very competent game from Clint – starting to show some of his running game with a couple of breaks.	B+
14. Timoci Nagusa	Proving me wrong with my concerns about his defence with every game he plays.	B+
13. Darren Cave	Strength, power and pace and another try. Should be knocking on the door of Irish selection.	B+
12. Paddy Wallace	Broke himself in gently with an understated performance with some great tackles.	B-
11. Simon Danielli	Struggled with an injury early on but still showed some good lines.	C+
10. Ian Humphreys	Woke up in the second half and completely controlled the game. Kicked the big points.	B+
9. Isaac Boss	A bit more subdued from his usual abrasive display but completely outplayed his opponent.	B-
1. Tom Court	An impressive enough performance but still needs a few more games under his belt.	C+
2. Andy Kyriacou	Couple of good runs and he seems to be really enjoying his rugby. Lost concentration for a few lineouts.	B+
3. BJ Botha	Quieter game around the park but showed great strength and technique for his try.	B+
4. Ed O’Donoghue	Another big display from Mr Ed. Let’s hope he gets some Irish recognition this season	B+
5. Dan Tuohy	We’ll I suppose he can’t score in every match. A competent, but quieter performance.	C+
6. Chris Henry	We are really spoilt this year in the back row. Excellent as always.	B+
7. Willie Faloon	A little bit quieter this game but still a great performance. Really impressed with him this year.	A-
8. Robbie Diack	My stand out player. Starting to ooze class and confidence in everything he does.	A
16. Nigel Brady	A solid performance when he came on late in the second half. Still keeping Kyri on his toes.	C+
17. Declan Fitzpatrick	Scrum went well when he came on and a nice drive to nick one against the head.	B+
18. Neil McComb	Didn’t get much chance to shine but should stick around the squad.	C
19. Thomas Anderson	Adds a lot of abrasion when he comes on. Obviously got a good chin as well.	B+
20. Paul Marshall	Only a brief appearance at the end. Didn’t get a chance to shine.	C
21. Ian Whitten	Didn’t get a chance to shine, don’t know if he even got to touch the ball.	C
22. Andrew Trimble	A much better performance coming on for the injured Danielli.	B-

Overall Grade.

B- Good performances but lacking that collective passion and frenzy of earlier games.

More like this:

• The Headmaster’s report
• Ulster 13 Edinburgh 16
• Paddy or Niall? Squad for Connacht.
• Teams for Connacht and Connaught!