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Connacht fail to deliver, as Ulster escape....
By Sea_point November 24 2007
The question "where to now?" must be asked about Connacht. The scoreline suggests a comfortable Ulster win, and in the end I suppose it was. But talk to the Ulster forwards all of which have been capped at international level and they will tell you that they certainly didn't have things their own way.


They were matched at scrum time and harried to distraction at lineout and breakdown where Connacht led by the indominatble Johnny O'Connor forced inumerable turnovers in the first half.

From there however the problems started for the Westerners. This season Michael Bradley has developed a bit of a pet project as he tries to convert winger Conor McPhillips into a scrum-half, this despite the fact that he has Ireland A scrum half Conor O'Loughlin and former Ireland scrumhalf Tom Tierney in his squad already.

The learning curve for McPhillips has extended to every Connacht fixture this season while the more naturally gifted O'Loughlin has been left to watch on the bench. Of the nine competitve fixtures so far in domestic and European competition McPhilips has seen 526 minutes action while O'Loughlin has been called on for a paltry 194.

In last nights fixture, McPhillps was central to Connacht's inablilty to cause Ulster's defence any real threat despite the plethora of possession won and stolen by his hard working pack. He dithered over possesion, often choosing the wrong target when eventually his mind was made up. Early on when Connacht were under pressure deep in their own half, they managed to turn over Ulster's lineout and despite space and time McPhillips was all at sea as his dreadfully slow attempted clearence kick was blocked down by an Ulster hand putting Connacht back under pressure.

As the weeks have passed supporters will have noticed that outside half Tim Donnelly is increasingly flustered in possesion and his place kicking (essential points for a under resourced team like Connacht) hsa suffered as a side-effect.

Last night Donnelly had one of his worst games so far in a Connacht jersey, one moment of madness when he abdicated responsibility for a clearing kick (after yet another briliant steal by is forwards) throwing a hospital pass to young wing Aidan Wynne led to an easy try for Kieron Dawson after a blindside peel from the resluting Uster lineout. Bt one has to feel sympathy for Donnelly as he is reliant on the service that he recieves from his scrumhalf to enable him to perform to the required level.

Yet despite this once again coach Bradley allowed the momentum his forwards were generating to be frittered away by the performance of this mis-firing duo, until replacing Donnelly with 22 minutes to go and then taking another six minutes to decide that McPhillips was not the answer.

The difference once Andy Dunne and Conor O'Loughlin entered the fray was huge, unfortunately the Connacht forwards had now lost the momentum and Ulster were able to close out the game with late tries by Del'Falva and Roger Wilson.

Connacht: G Duffy; A Wynne, D Riordan, MDeane, O Treviranus; T Donnelly, C McPhillips; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Morris;M Swift, A Farley; M McCarthy, J O'Connor, J Muldoon.

Replacements: A Dunne for Donnelly, 58mins; C O'Loughlin for McPhillips, 64 mins; R Loughney for Morris, 74 mins; ROfisa for O'Connor, 78 mins; J Merrigan for Flavin, 78 mins.

Ulster : M Bartholomeusz; T Bowe, ATrimble, P Steinmetz, S Danielli; P Wallace, I Boss; J Fitzpatrick, R Best, BYoung, M McCullough, C Del Fava, N Best, K Dawson, R Wilson.

Replacements: D Pollock for Dawson, 59mins; R Caldwell for McCullough, 62 mins; R Dewey for Steinmetz, 70 mins.

The scorers:

For Connacht:
Try: Riordan
Con: Donnelly
Pen: Donnelly, Dunne

For Ulster:
Tries: Dawson, Del Fava, Wilson
Cons: Wallace 3
Pens: Wallace 3

Yellow card: Neil Best (Ulster, 48 min)

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