On Friday evening, Connacht were the visitors to the Kingspan Stadium to face Ulster in a United Rugby Championship fixture. The large pre-Christmas crowd anticipated a fast flowing game, after Ulster’s performance last week against Racing 92. However the weather conditions soon put paid to that.
Ulster had an ideal start when Andrew Warwick got over, after only 3 minutes. John Cooney‘s conversion had Ulster 7-0 up.
A series of Connacht drives were rewarded when Bundee Aki found space to the right of the posts. Jack Carty‘s conversion had the sides level at 7-7.
The game ebbed and flowed in the wind, between bursts of rain. Following a short penalty move Nick Timoney drove through Connacht legs to score. Cooney added the points and Ulster led 14-7 at halftime.
After the break, as weather conditions deteriorated, so handling and ball control became more difficult. Cooney kept the scoreboard ticking over with a 57th minute penalty goal, before Shamus Hurley-Langton burst through 2 tackles to score in the left corner to bring Connacht up to 12-17.
A 66th Cooney penalty goal gave Ulster some relief at 20-12.
Following Shane Bolton‘s 69th try, when he slide in from 5 meters on the now rain lubricated pitch and JJ Hanrahan‘s conversion, Ulster were made to sweat on a 20-19 lead for 10 minutes.
They held out for victory and now move temporarily up to 4th place in the URC.
