Match Review: Connacht 15 Ulster 15

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Ulster’s winning form came to an end at the Sportsground last night, as the first inter-provincial of the season ended in a 15 – 15 draw against Connacht.

Brian McLaughlin made four changes to his squad in preparation for the much anticipated inter-provincial against rivals Connacht, and it only took a matter of minutes for the Ulstermen to show the threat they posed, when Andrew Trimble stormed down the left wing after Ryan Caldwell won the lineout. Connacht’s defense was strong though and stopped the winger just short of the try line, before they stole a turnover ball.

Ulster were dealt a massive blow just ten minutes into the game when Stephen Ferris was forced to leave the field with a shoulder injury. His departure meant Chris Henry moved to blindside, Wannenburg moved to number eight and Faloon – Ferris’ replacement – started at openside.

Despite the reshuffling of the pack, Ulster remained focused and slowly crept their way towards Connacht’s 22. Seventeen minutes into the match saw Connacht flanker . . .

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4 responses to “Match Review: Connacht 15 Ulster 15”

  1. junty

    Although the game was no classic it was fairly brutal as the number of injuries to both teams show this. It was frustrating to be there and watch as both teams cancelled each other out to a certain extent. It is worrying that we have failed to punish the opposition when we have the 1 man advantage….. however we must remember that we had only a 1 man advantage for a brief period as Emerick was sinbinned during their sinbinning. On a positive note our defence was strong and sound during Trimbles 10 mins rest. I know that NOC tried for a drop goal and was a poor effort but i think he hit it from about the 10 metre line …. why ????? the forwards were retaining the ball and there was still 2 or 3 mins left on the clcok surely we should have got a lot closer and he should have been attempting the drop from about their 22.
    After 4 games in the league we are still unbeaten……. have won 3 ……… and in my opinion haven’t really played well to our full potential in any of the 4 games.. so still room for improvement and hopefully this will start to happen on fri night gainst the warriors.

  2. maccers

    I know Muller can’t play every game, but leaving him out of a tricky away game in Galway always looked unwise.
    A lack of leadershio was evident and Cap’n Rory isn’t firing on many cylinders at this point. In the end they did well to grind out the draw, as Trimble’s sin-binning killed off the momentum that might have brought a win.

  3. A_Fan

    Not the greatest game of rugby I’ve ever seen, struggling to take anything positive away from it…maybe the only highlight is that we still remain unbeaten! Although on the back of that performance maybe we shouldn’t be.

    Scrum time was a disaster – get it sorted! This area of the game is going down hill fast in recent times and the situation needs to be looked at by the authorities…heavy penalties for illegal tactics is surely the only way to get the point across to the front rowers. Another negative was discipline, with 2 Ulster players being binned out of stupidity and on this point our own failure to be ruthless and punish the opposition when they where down to 14. This game was well within the reach of Ulster and we really should have won; later in the season other teams will turn up in Galway and will win against a tired Connacht squad.

    However this was not a full strength Ulster side, there are plenty of big names still to come into the the starting XV, good to see Wallace have a decent game at 10 and kicking reasonably well, O’Connor was a bit shaky when he game on, the missed pen and DG attempt werent even close, although in fairness I thought the pack should have carried on for a few more phases to enable him to get closer to the uprights.

    All in all not a very memorable game, which is maybe a good thing! We need to step up the performance next week in front of the home crowd as Europe appraoches..hope Ferris recovers well and I’ll be glad to see the leadership of Muller when he comes back into the side.

  4. Johnny King

    Wasn’t a great game for the sofa spectator. Luckily I was distracted for long periods (doing battle with a particularly feisty Pinot Noir). Is Stephen Ferris turning into Darren “sick note” Anderton?

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