URC: Ulster 19-26 Connacht – Away wins on bonus points at Affidea Stadium

It was Stuart Lancaster’s side who scored the first try of the match after Jack Carty’s blistering pace enabled Sean Jansen to beat the resulting penalty before the conversion was successfully initiated by Sean Naughton.

The home side responded quickly with Bryn Ward, who was undergoing assessment for a head injury [HIA] Substituting for Marcus Rea, he broke contact and beat defenders to get close to the try line.

The back-rower was offloaded to Nathan Doak, who finished well and converted his effort to level matters.

Just before half-time, Finley Pelham was sent to the bin for a direct tackle on Tom Stewart, and both teams went into the changing rooms with seven points each.

Murphy’s men came out after the break applying pressure initially but a series of tries from Connacht in the final quarter put them in control.

Pelham collided from close range, before a Dave Heffernan offload sent Tracy into the corner for Connacht’s third try of the night to put them ahead.

Naughton added the first conversion, but the second drifted wide.

Ulster tried to respond with Zak Ward accelerating down the left wing and across the dotted line, but the conversion was missed.

The comeback attempt was not enough as Connacht continued their momentum and Finn Treacy held off Jack Murphy and Zac Ward to clinch his second try of the night and the all-important bonus point.

Naughton scored the conversion and extended the lead to 12-26 with 10 minutes left.

A series of picks and transitions from Ulster’s men led to Angus Bell grounding the ball in for Ulster’s third try of the night. After a short official television match [TMO] After review, the attempt was halted, and Murphy quickly converted to make it a one-trial game.

Then, with one minute left on the clock, Ulster were awarded a penalty, but the ball got loose and was cleared by Ben Murphy.