End of home rule for Connacht

Ulster 10

THERE is no time to take stock. Putting this defeat in context will be easier once the lights go off at the RDS arena on New Year’s Day as by that point, Connacht’s position within the inter-provincial hierarchy might be a lot clear but for now, this St Stephen’s Day gut-wrenching loss to Ulster is a hard one to assess.

Les Kiss and his young squad – barely recognisable from the team that won 27-20 in Galway last April – are blazing a trail after a patchy start. The 15 that took to the field at a sold-out Sportsground on Saturday were still on a high from their back to back wins over a Toulouse side that sit second in the Top 14.

In the absence of the likes of Iain Henderson, Dan Tuohy, Jared Payne and Tommy Bowe, Ulster seem to have lost no ground whatsoever. In fact, and don’t say this too loudly, they might actually be playing better. It’s not that Alan O’Connor, Sean Reidy, Stuart McCloskey and Rory Scholes are better individually, but they are certainly adding a collective burst of energy to Ireland’s form team.

Ulster arrived in Galway with five wins and four defeats on the Pro12 campaign, trailing Connacht and well aware that the upstarts from the west would be a threat to their top four hopes if a result wasn’t garnered here.

The form sides from the island locked horns and for long periods cancelled each other out in a real 80 minute struggle for superiority. The game was won in the last ten minutes and Ulster had the know-how and confidence to figure out how to win it, while their hosts froze for the first time all season.

This defeat is very much the first real body blow of an incredible campaign to date for Connacht and watching how they react in the upcoming hugely challenging away ties against Leinster this weekend and Llanelli on January 10 should be fascinating.

Previous defeats in this campaign away to Glasgow and Cardiff were certainly frustrating as a victory was very much in the offing in both cases, but this was the first time they trudged off the field second best against in-form opponents and on home soil.

Purely in terms of the game's most memorable moments in the 22, one could argue that Connacht were hard done by here. The opening ten minutes were full of vim and vigour from the men in green who had Ulster scrambling.

Full match report in this week's Connacht Tribune