The Front Row Union Sport - Provincial Friendly: Connacht host Ulster for pre-season friendly

Provincial Friendly: Connacht host Ulster for pre-season friendly

Aug 15, 2015

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It’s not often that I watch an Ulster side outscored nine tries to one and come away from the match reasonably satisfied with the proceedings, but that was the case last Sunday down in Athlone when Ulster Women played a series of trial matches against Connacht Women.

To set the scene, Connacht are a settled side, two years in the making, and they already had a run out against Munster Women under their belts this season. Ulster, on the other hand, are on the first phase of their rebuild with, unfortunately, quite a few key players missing due to other commitments last weekend.

The trials consisted of three thirty minute “games” and what Ulster were looking for was an improvement over each game. To be fair, improvement is exactly what they got, conceding five tries in the first run out (with two chances for Connacht butchered) but they improved dramatically in each session to concede only two in each of the second and third matches. In truth the final session could have went either way with Connacht scoring with the last play.

As far as Ulster are concerned there were a lot of boxes ticked.

Scrums improved dramatically throughout the games.
Line outs were solid.
First up defence was shambles during the first period but improved dramatically.
Pleasingly attitude and application were spot on from a very aggressive warm up through to the final whistle.

Unfortunately speed of delivery at the breakdown and re-alignment during open play still need work and that needs more competitive games.

So, plenty to be happy about but also plenty to work on. It’s a great pity that the Ulster Rugby haven’t arranged another pre-season fixture to give the players and coaching team a chance to address the issues before next Saturday’s Inter Provincial fixture against Leinster. Oh well. maybe next year!