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Munster sack Ulster in Belfast for first time since 2016
By PA
Ulster fell to their first home defeat in the United Rugby Championship as Munster came away from Belfast with what was their first victory there since October 2016 after triumphing 24-17.
First-half tries from Stephen Archer and Keith Earls, along with a conversion and four penalties by Joey Carbery over the course of the night, saw Munster to a valuable victory.
Ulster trailed 15-3 at the break and, despite battling back in the second half with tries from Rob Herring and Sean Reidy, they slipped from second to fourth in the table thanks to a third straight URC defeat, with Munster climbing to third.
John Cooney opened the scoring with a seventh-minute penalty, but Munster levelled it four minutes later through Carbery.
Munster then claimed the next score just after the 20-minute mark when the visitors put a penalty to the corner where, from an untidy line-out, prop Archer drove over from close range.
Carbery’s conversion put them 10-3 ahead and this became 15-3 on 27 minutes.
Munster moved the ball at pace from left to right, with Damian de Allende and Carbery combining for former Ulster centre Chris Farrell to provide the assist for Keith Earls to touch down. Carbery missed the conversion.
Though Ulster battled to get back into the game, with Robert Baloucoune looking dangerous and Cooney making some determined runs, they made no inroads on the scoreboard as the opening half ended with Munster maintaining momentum and staying 12 points in front.
Ulster skipper Iain Henderson did not return for the second half and Munster got the first score through a Carbery penalty.
Ulster were given hope on 47 minutes when a terrific take by Stuart McCloskey launched an attack which led to a penalty and, in turn, saw Herring touching down from the resulting maul. Cooney also converted to cut Munster’s lead to 18-10.
Carbery kicked his third penalty just short of the hour, but – with barely five minutes left on the clock – Reidy scored close in for Ulster after Shane Daly’s yellow card, and Nathan Doak’s conversion cut Munster’s lead to four.
However, with a minute to go, Carbery landed his fourth penalty to secure the contest.
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Warren, if you think you should stay on coaching Wales, you are beyond deluded. If you love Wales & Welsh rugby as much as you say you do (& I'm sure you probably do) you should resign immediately so this once proud & passionate rugby nation can rebuild without you. How many of your players will make the British & Irish Lions squad.?
It's time to walk the plank.!
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
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