Ulster A crashed to a 28 – 43 defeat to Leinster A in the opening round of the Celtic Cup at Malone RFC on Friday evening.

The Ulster A tries came from James Hume (2), Matthew Rea and Aaron Sexton with Johnny McPhillips adding 4 conversions but despite getting a try bonus it has to be regarded as a disappointing result for the Ulster side given the comparative experience of the two sides.

The Leinster A tries came from Harry Byrne, Scot Penny, Conor O’Brien, Ronan Kelleher, Michael Silvester and Dan Sheehan. Byrne completed the scoring for the visitors adding five conversions and a penalty.

ULSTER A		LEINSTER A
Peter Nelson	15	Hugo Keenan
Aaron Sexton	14	Michael Silvester
Jack Owens	13	Conor O’Brien
James Hume	12	Tom Daly (c)
Iwan Hughes	11	Jack Kelly
Johnny McPhillips	10	Harry Byrne
Jonny Stewart	9	Paddy Patterson
Schalk vd Merwe	1	Ed Byrne
Peter Cromie	2	Ronan Kelleher
Rodney Ah You	3	Vakh Abdaladze
Peter Browne	4	Ross Molony
Alex Thompson	5	Jack Dunne
Caleb Montgomery	6	Oisín Dowling
Chris Henry (c)	7	Scott Penny
Greg Jones	8	Caelan Doris
Paul McGookin	16	Dan Sheehan
Peter Cooper	17	Giuseppe Coyne
Michael Cromie	18	Jack Aungier
Matthew Rea	19	Ronan Foley
Marcus Rea	20	Ronan Watters
Graham Curtis	21	Hugh O’Sullivan
Brice Houston	22	David Hawkshaw
Michael Stronge	23	Liam Turner

The results from all the games in the Celtic Cup were as follows.

Fri  07 Sep 2018	17:00	Ulster	28 – 43	Leinster	Malone RFC
Fri  07 Sep 2018	17:30	Munster	24 – 16	Connacht	Irish Independent
Fri  07 Sep 2018	19:00	Ospreys	21 – 37	Scarlets	Bridgend RFC
Fri  07 Sep 2018	19:15	Dragons	41 – 36	Cardiff	Rodney Parade

This gives current standings in the Irish and Welsh Conferences as follows.

To complete our coverage our match gallery from the Ulster game is below.

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Photography by Bob Given Photography.