Ulster went down to Leinster by five tries to two in this pre-season roustabout at Navan RFC on Saturday afternoon. Mark Best crossed in the first half for Ulster, with Sam Windsor converting, and Robert Lyttle‘s try, together with and Johnny McPhillips conversion leveled the score midway through the second half. However three late tries saw Leinster pull a deal of daylight between the teams. 

Leinster went into a 7 – 0 lead after 12 minutes thanks to a Dan Leavy try and Ross Byrne conversion, but Ulster pulled back at the end of the first quarter when Kyle McCall¹ finished off a period of Ulster pressure and Sam Windsor knocked over the conversion. Leinster crossed again before the break, through Jack Conan, and Byrne converted to give the hosts a 14 – 7 lead at the break. 

Ulster made ten changes at the break and the new look team applied sufficient pressure to see Ian Nagle and then Andrew Porter visit the bench for ten minutes. Unfortunately the visitors failed to trouble the scoreboard until Robert Lyttle crossed the try line towards the end of Porter’s absence. Johnny McPhillips converted, to tie the game, with approximately fifteen minutes left and all to play for!

It was Leinster that stepped up and a late flourish saw Josh Murphy, Fergus McFadden and Adam Byrne cross the whitewash in quick succession. 

Joey Carberry converted the last, with the final kick of the game.

Leinster Squad: Peter Dooley, James Tracy, Michael Bent, Ross Molony, Hayden Triggs, Dominic Ryan, Dan Leavy, Jack Conan, Bryan Byrne, Sean McNulty, Andrew Porter, Vakh Abdalaze, Ian Neagle, Pedar Timmins, Josh vd Flyer, Josh Murphy, Niall Morris, Adam Byrne, Rory O’Loughlin, Tom Daly, Barry Daly, Ross Byrne, Nick McCarthy, Luke McGrath, Charlie Rock, Joey Carberry, Cathal Marsh, Zane Kirchner, Fergus McFadden, Billy Dardis. 

Ulster Squad: Kyle McCall, Andy Warwick, Michael Lagan, John Andrew, Johnny Murphy, Zack McCall, Johnny Simpson, Rodney Ah You, Ross Kane, Connor Smyth, Alex Thompson, John Donnan, Alan O’Connor, Stephen Mulholland, Clive Ross, Conall Boomer, Nick Timoney, Matthew Rea, Dave Shanahan, Angus Lloyd, Aaron Cairns, Andrew Magrath, Johnny McPhillips, Brett Herron, Sam Windsor, Mark Best, Rory Butler, Jacob Stockdale, David Busby, Conor Kelly, Robert Lyttle, Louis Ludik.

1. Correction: Ulster’s first try has been attributed to Mark Best, not Kyle McCall as originally stated. ↩︎