Egan guides Connacht home

UNDER-18 SCHOOLS INTERPROS: Connacht 11 Ulster 8:CONNACHT SCORED a narrow victory over Ulster in yesterday's Schools Interpro Under-18 clash in at Stevenson Park, with winger Colm Egan scoring all of their points.

Two 50-metre penalties and a try, all in the first half, from the Sligo Grammar prospect, guided the westerners to a narrow success.

Ben Carty kicked ahead for Egan to win the race and touch down in the left corner on 19 minutes.

Connacht had secondrow Shane Boyle sin binned on 25 minutes, but rather than take advantage, Ulster conceded again, Egan’s second penalty sending the visitors in with an 11-0 interval advantage.

Ulster fullback Rob Haldane was off target with a couple of penalty attempts, but they did get themselves back in the game in the 46th minute when Justin Rea and Mark Best combined to send winger Neil Burns in for an unconverted try.

Connacht had a second player, outhalf Carty, sent to the bin for 10 minutes, but again the home side struggled to break down their stubborn opponents.

Justin Rea added a penalty, but Connacht defended superbly in the final 15 minutes to hold on and shade a tight contest.

ULSTER:R Haldane; N Burns, J McClure, N Brown, D Busby; J Rea, C Wright; M Hoey, A Kerr, S McBrien, J Darling, J Cooke, B Alexander, D Marshall, P Anderson. Replacements: M Montgomery for Kerr, J Craig for McBrien, R Kane for Hoey, D Dass for Anderson, P Weir for Wright, A Wright for Rea, M Best for Brown.

CONNACHT:R Pepperhobs; C Egan, A McAleer, M Melotte, C Langan; B Carty, E Gavin; J Walsh, S Flannagan, S Mehagueria, S Boyle, D O'Dowd-Hill, E Connell, R Mooney, S O'Brien. Replacements: J O'Hehir for Mooney, C Gaffney for Carty.

Referee:N Correll.