Ulster A’s third “Covid Interprovincial” ended in a draw at The Sportground on a bright and sunny Friday afternoon.

A bright and sunny Friday afternoon in Galway in December is probably the biggest surprise about this one, especially as it was tipping out of the heavens here in lovely Larne, Gateway to the North, while I was following the updates on twitter.

From my preview I reckoned this would be tight (I also reckoned it would be tipping down 🙂 ) mainly because Connacht appeared to be using the match to give a few “slightly” more experienced players a bit of a run. I also reckoned that Ulster’s exciting back three might cut loose in this one but, over the last two games, the only one who’s appears to be cutting loose is “wonderkid” Aaron Sexton who grabbed a brace in this one and second row Cormac Izuchukwu. Both crossed last time out against Munster.

The brief match details are as follows.

Ulster opened the scoring in the second quarter with Izuchukwu crossing and Bill Johnston converting. However Connacht hit back shortly after through a Oisin McCormack try and Conor Fitzgerald conversion to take the score to 7 all at half time.

Connacht took the lead in the second half with Diarmuid Kilgallen getting a try for Fitzgerald to convert but Ulster pulled it back to a 2 point game as Sexton crossed out wide for his first try.

An unconverted try from Colm de Buitlear put Connacht back in front by seven as the game went into it’s final stages but Ulster managed to maintain their undefeated record with a late try from Sexton, converted by Johnston, to give a final score of Connacht 19 Ulster 19.

Teams

Connacht Eagles: Oran McNulty, Diarmuid Kilgallen, Shane Jennings, Sean O’Brien, Colm de Buitlear, Conor Fitzgerald, Colm Reilly, Matthew Burke, Dylan Tierney-Martin, Dominic Robertson-McCoy, Oisin Dowling, Darragh Murray, Ciaran Booth, Oisin McCormack, Donncha Byrne. Replacements: Declan Adamson, Charlie Ward, Conor Kenny, Cormac Daly, Joshua Dunne, Stephen Kerins, Cathal Forde, Peter Sullivan, Connor Dunne, Hubert Costello, Eoin de Buitlear, Hubert Gilvarry, Matthew Devine, Rory McClane.

Ulster A: Conor Rankin, Jude Postlethwaite, Ben Moxham, Hayden Hyde, Aaron Sexton, Bill Johnston, Nathan Doak, Andrew Warwick, James McCormick, Ross Kane, Cormac Izuchukwu, Conor McMenamin, David McCann (C), Marcus Rea, Azur Allison. Replacements: Bradley Roberts, Callum Reid, Oscar Egan, Harry Sheridan, George Saunderson, Lewis Finlay, Bruce Houston.