Ulster stretch Magners lead
Ulster 20 Connacht 10
Ulster stretched their lead at the top of the Magners League after three second-half tries secured the home side victory in a hard-fought encounter with physical Connacht.
The four points give Ulster a seven-point lead over nearest challengers Llanelli, who surprisingly lost to Ospreys earlier today, though Leinster, currently level with Llanelli, could close the gap should they win at Munster tomorrow.
Two tries from substitute Tommy Bowe, with fellow substitute Paddy Wallace having a hand in both, saw Ulster push on for the result, with Neil Best’s late score giving the home side the breathing space they needed over a brave and determined Connacht.
The visitors had a chance to come away with a bonus point only to see Paul Warwick’s late drop-goal attempt charged down, as Ulster defended their line in the game’s closing minutes after what had been an animated second half when compared to the ponderous first 40 minutes.
It was a miserable opening half with an unsettling number of errors infecting both sides’ efforts, making for a scrappy and disjointed affair to put before the St Stephen's Day crowd of just over 12,000 at Ravenhill.
The league leaders’ performance was particularly poor with Ulster coughing up several line-outs to the visitors, but Connacht were also guilty of knocking on and dropping balls in promising positions.
The western province did at least open the scoring with a snap drop goal from centre Warwick after three minutes, and they held on to their slender lead for another 17 minutes before David Humphreys levelled the scores with a penalty, which followed a kick and chase that took play up to the Connacht try-line.
After that it was mostly a litany of errors from both teams.
McHugh saw a drop-goal attempt touch an Ulster player on its way over the dead-ball line, but from the resulting Connacht put-in to the scrum the visitors, not for the first time, cheaply coughed up possession.
Indeed, Connacht had an even better opportunity to get more points on the board when a show-and-go from Warwick almost put Keith Matthews clear but, again, the ball was lost in contact.
In injury time Ulster briefly turned the screw with an excellent Paul Steinmetz break, but Humphreys dropped a pass as Ulster kept on the attack through several phases and the scores stayed at 3-3 at the turnaround.
Paddy Wallace, a half-time substitute for Humphreys, made an immediate impact and set up Bowe’s opening try after a short pass let Neil Best through a gap.
Wallace then threw the long pass that released Bowe and followed this up by converting from the right touchline to give Ulster a 10-3 lead after 49 minutes.
Connacht refused to lie down and an irresistible line-out maul saw skipper John Fogarty get the touchdown, which was converted by McHugh to tie the scores at 10-10.
Seven minutes later, however, Ulster substitute Isaac Boss also made his presence immediately evident with his first touch when a blindside break off a scrum saw Wallace link with Bowe, and the Ireland winger broke two tackles to score in the right corner again.
Wallace was short with the conversion but Best’s 75th-minute score, from a line-out maul, gave Ulster an advantage they refused to surrender.
