Connacht have another fruitless trip to Ulster

THE HUMDRUM life at the bottom of the league had its moments last night in Belfast. Connacht came to Ravenhill looking for a lifeline to make their run in to the end of the Magners League season a live affair. Ulster sought to knock on the head, at this late stage, any thoughts that the western province would snatch their Heineken European Cup place for next season.

Ulster, with a match in hand and four points ahead, duly ground out the win. In a tight, ragged struggle the two teams each had five minutes of pressure inside their opposition's 22. Ulster scored a try in their "golden five", Connacht could not.

Although Matt McCullough came in with a late Ulster touch down, that was the difference between the two teams. It allows Ulster stretch their lead and with a game in hand, Connacht look likely to prop up the bottom and sit out yet another season of European Cup competition.

It also extends Connacht's doleful record in Belfast to no wins since 1961.

"I think it's the eighth time I've played Connacht," said Ulster coach Matt Williams after the match.

"And they've never been pretty games. I've great admiration for the way they play, they're just so courageous and we had to be that way tonight.

"We had planned to really run at them but both 10s really struggled with the wet. I said to lose patience is to lose the battle. You've just got to stick this ball up your jumper. If it was a dry night it would have been different but we just had to play the conditions."

The first quarter was ugly, one where the players had problems with the laws and the conditions. First up was Stephen Ferris with an impetuous flying dive into a ruck for which referee, Peter Fitzgibbon rightly binned him for 10 minutes. Ulster coach Matt Williams could not have been pleased. Seven minutes in and they were down to 14 men.

It was Ulster's third yellow card in their last three matches and all of their pre-match declarations of better discipline evaporated.

But Connacht prop Robbie Morris quickly followed Ferris with the yellow card as players struggled in the rain, both teams riddling their performance with handling errors as the ball squirted around the pitch.

In fairness a black cloud arrived over the ground after a sunny day and threw down biblical volumes of rain. The crowd were half expecting frogs and locusts next but the end result was the players floundered around.

Andy Dunne finally took Connacht off the mark, when Kieron Dawson infringed in a ruck on 15 minutes to concede the penalty. The outhalf's successful kick was the closest any team came to either posts in the opening half an hour.

There was little continuity around the pitch from both sides and the scramble for clean possession was an ongoing theatre of battle that neither was able to dominate. From all of the stopping and starting and knock-ons and ruck infringements, Ulster finally earned their second penalty for Niall O'Connor to land from 35 metres for 3-3. From there they went into the break, Dunne having booted a late kickable penalty wide, leaving the sizeable crowd at Ravenhill no better informed than they were at the beginning about which way this match was going to fall.

Connacht began the second half brightly with better retention and surer handling.

But when Andy Dunne missed two penalties in the opening exchanges, the second wide leaving him shaking his head in open frustration, coach Michael Bradley acted swiftly and immediately pulled him out of the game with Troy Nathan coming from the bench into outhalf.

Given the conditions the match was going to hinge on one big score and that would surely come from the pack. Ulster crucially grabbed their opportunity in their first serious expedition into the Connacht 22.

When the referee went to the TMO after a raft of bodies pushed over on 61 minutes with tighthead prop Tom Court at the bottom, the sense was that if it went Ulster's way it would be enough to seal the match. So it proved to be.

Nathan kicked a penalty with 10 minutes to go to keep Connacht within one score but when they did get their opportunity in the Ulster 22, they couldn't convert. McCullough then bundled over from the fringe of a ruck at the end of this dour match to also deny Connacht the bonus point.

Scoring sequence: 15 mins A Dunne pen 0-3; 37 mins N O'Connor pen 3-3; 61 mins T Court try, P Wallace con 10-3; 66 mins Wallace pen 13-3; 73 mins T Nathan pen 13-6; 78 mins M McCullough try 18-6.

ULSTER: B Cunningham; T Bowe, A Trimble, P Wallace, M Bartholomeusz; N O'Connor, I Boss; J Fitzpatrick, R Best (capt), T Court, J Harrison, C Del Fava, M McCullough, K Dawson, S Ferris.

Replacements: R Caldwell for Del Fava, R Dewey for O'Connor (55 mins); N Best for Dawson (63 mins); B Young for Fitzpatrick (63 mins).

CONNACHT: G Duffy; M Mostyn, M Deane, K Matthews, D Riordan; A Dunne, C McPhillips; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Morris, D Gannon, A Farley (capt), J Muldoon, J O'Connor, C Rigney.

Replacements: N Troy for Dunne (37 mins); R Loughney for Morris, A Browne for Gannon (68 mins); J Fogarty for Flavin (78 mins).

Referee: P Fitzgibbon (MAR).

MAGNERS LEAGUE Ulster ... 18 Tries: Court, McCullough. Cons: P Wallace. Pens: O'Connor, Wallace.Connacht ... 6 Pens: Dunne (2). Attendance: 9,428