Ulster made it four from four in December with a hard fought, but ultimately inevitable, win against near neighbours Connacht at the Sportsground on Saturday evening.

The visitors left it till the closing minutes to wrap this one up, with a try from Nick Williams securing the points. However it was a poor game from both teams. Ulster reverted far too easily into the low risk tactics of old and this played right to the strengths of their generally less talented opposition. In fairness though, any effort to open up wasn’t aided by the weak officiating from Fitzgerald and Co. who closed down the space for both teams with their liberal interpretation of the offside laws.

I’d said at the game that there would be a big ten minutes from Connacht and then Ulster would take over and, at the time, I did expect a comfortable win for our boys. We did get the big ten from the Westies and Ulster did generally dominate thereafter but space was so limited in midfield that neither side seemed capable of creating clean breaks. It was billed as the big game between Ireland’s two form teams but it was a huge disappointment as both concentrated more on defence than attack.

The match facts are fairly simple. Paddy Jackson converted a 32nd minute penalty to give Ulster a 0 – 3 lead which they took to the break. Connacht’s replacement out half, AJ MacGinty, pulled the teams level on the 63rd minute with a penalty of his own before Williams secured the game for Ulster with a 76th minute try after a break by Luke Marshall, Jackson converted and Ulster won 3 – 10.

Outside of that Fitzgerald bottled a couple of yellow cards for Connacht after Matt Healy took out Andrew Trimble in the air and an unidentified forward knocked the ball out of a ruck in their 22 after a break from Rory Scholes. He did get it right for Luke Marshall’s yellow card in the second half for a stupid and unnecessary trip.

I’d said, after defeats to Saracens and Leinster, that winning the next four games would turn the season around and Ulster have done just that and, when they were switched on for the big European games, they have done it with some style. With Munster, Oyonnax (x2), Saracens and Treviso up in January we expect four wins out of five, and yes, one of those wins is Saracens away!

Did we have a lovely time the day we went to Galway? Well, yes we did but I must say that my enjoyment was somewhat tempered by the lack of turkey, ham and stuffing sandwiches provided, or should I say not provided, by my travelling companions. 🙂

Ulster: Louis Ludik, Andrew Trimble, Luke Marshall, Stuart McCloskey, Rory Scholes, Paddy Jackson, Ruan Pienaar, Andrew Warwick, Rob Herring, Wiehahn Herbst, Alan O’Connor, Franco vd Merwe, Robbie Diack, Sean Reidy, Nick Williams. Replacements: John Andrew, Callum Black, Ricky Lutton, Stephen Mulholland, Roger Wilson, Paul Marshall, Ian Humphreys, Sam Arnold.

Photo credit: James Crombie, INPHO.