Leinster win comfortably enough away to Munster. Edinburgh beating Glasgow earlier probably isn't good news but was fully deserved.

Leinster while far from perfect were as good as I've seen them in a while. I never believed they wouldn't win after they got their early try but Munster look a mess at the moment. At least Craig Ronaldson mightn't feel as bad when he sees Rory Scannell's early penalty miss this evening. I'd worry for them at Ulster and Stade.

We usually lift it for Leinster so I'd expect some kind of reaction from last night's disappointment but Leinster don't look as fragile as they did a few weeks back. Munster's performances in recent weeks do kind of place our victory there in context though. At the end of the season they'll be happy it was a World Cup year as the points they collected there will be very important to them.

salmson wrote: Hopefully we can chalk this off to experience - Ulster were cynical, defensive, glacially slow and wonderfully, wonderfully professional - and give The Goys a going over on Friday. I'm certainly hoping Leinster win today to give us the best chance of taking them.

Not sure what's better for Connacht today a Leinster win or loss. They are out of contention in the Champions Cup so their focus will be on working their way up the Pro 12 table. A win at Thomond and they're building up some momentum. A loss might put another dent in their fragile confidence and have them under pressure on New Year's Day knowing there is no margin for error against Connacht.

Connacht will really need to put points on the board early and keep it ticking over. Imagine we'll get the official word on Henshaw and Ah You leaving this week just to make things a little mentally tougher on the squad.

salmson wrote: Funny enough where were in the stands the concensus was that, a couple of excellent breaks asides, Marmion had a fairly poor game given he was on the front foot most of the night - he failed to put any pressure whatsoever on Pienaar who bossed the game. Muldowney had his worst game in a long time, I lost count of the number of times Marmion and Carty looked into midfield only to find him in the wrong position or standing still.

Hopefully we can chalk this off to experience - Ulster were cynical, defensive, glacially slow and wonderfully, wonderfully professional - and give The Goys a going over on Friday. I'm certainly hoping Leinster win today to give us the best chance of taking them.

I thought Marmion had a decent game. Pienaar was nowhere near as influential as previous games. I also thought the second row were decent. We had problems in the backrow Connolly aside and numbers 10-15 had their poorest games in a long time. First 20 minutes was like watching Connacht 2 years ago

For me we've forgotten the basics in favour of the expansive passing game. I'm not against the latter but you have to mix and match, teams have us figured out at this point and as long as you give Jack a few early hits he will be 10m back from the gainline and never threaten a line break. After that its plain sailing for the opposition. The game was crying out for some kicks behind a fast Ulster defense, their back three weren't that good under the high ball and we two 10s on the field we should have been the ones making territorial gains. Thought AJ was an improvement when he came on, both in facing the opposition and asking questions when kicking, even if he did miss touch.

We're asking our forwards to pass more than take contact, and our backs are the ones rucking and building phases. Our rucking and ball retention from our backs was actually really good for the most part but surely tired out the likes of Healy and TOH asking them to do a job that they shouldn't have to be doing. The one time White made a pick and go we won a penalty I believe, and I think if we'd stuck to those basics during the periods when we were just outside their 22 we would have won a lot more penalties and territory.

We're still playing way too much rugby in our own 22, I think its partially a panic thing as it seemed to get worse towards the end of the game. Again with the amount of kicking options we had on the field this should never be an issue, and its one of those things that can for the most part drilled and decisions made before ever getting on the pitch. Why did TOH take a quick tap after calling a mark? Maybe there was a plan to try and tire out Ulster but it definitely didn't work and this decision by O'Halloran put the pressure back on Connacht if anything.

Muldoon is still not a mature captain, we saw him arguing with a referee who clearly was not in the mood for backchat and was not for reversing his decisions based on player feedback. Was the ball kicked out of Muldoon's hands illegally? perhaps, but the decision was made. Muldoon has to find a less whiny/aggressive way of getting the ref on side. Once again Muldowney had to play minder to our captains temper tantrums.

McGinty was only taken off against Munster due to injury. Don't know what the 10 answer is either but if I had to bet on it I'd still bet on Carty.

I really don't think AJ is the answer to our problems. I thought he was poor against Munster when he started. He got taken off early that night. He also has an issue getting distance on his kicks.

The missed touch tonight killed us. It was awful. I still think our best bet is giving Carty more time or moving Ronaldson in to 10.

Funny enough where were in the stands the concensus was that, a couple of excellent breaks asides, Marmion had a fairly poor game given he was on the front foot most of the night - he failed to put any pressure whatsoever on Pienaar who bossed the game. Muldowney had his worst game in a long time, I lost count of the number of times Marmion and Carty looked into midfield only to find him in the wrong position or standing still.

Hopefully we can chalk this off to experience - Ulster were cynical, defensive, glacially slow and wonderfully, wonderfully professional - and give The Goys a going over on Friday. I'm certainly hoping Leinster win today to give us the best chance of taking them.

I'm not as downbeat as some - yes was shame to loose and we all want to get away from the "plucky Connacht" tag but we played alot of good expansive rugby last night, was a joy to watch those opening 20minutes in a rocking Sportsground.. Like against Cardiff though we didn't capitalise on our dominance which is starting to become an issue

I actually thought Ronaldson had good game at 12 apart from his place kicking - made few big tackles
But the second penalty miss, jaysus a left footer can't be missing them on a still night
MacGinty missing touch was real momentum turner also


Dillane, Connolly and Muldoon standouts in the pack - Marmion was brilliant I thought.

Felt for Healy who has been brilliant all season, ended up having one of his poorer games by his standards the night Joe is watching. He was lucky to not getting binned for collision with Trimble

Roll on the RDS

We need an out -half bad, One that's consistent. Ronaldson missed 2 game winners last night (even Keatly would have got them!!!). Thank god for John Muldoon. WE SHOUD HAVE HAD THAT GAME IN THE BAG IN THE FIRST HALF................................John Baird

This game had the feel of a Connacht I thought we were finally getting away from, unable to win a crucial tight game were they were the better team in a lot of areas. Missed kicks at goals, not finding touch on the penalty at a crucial time in the game, not scoring any points after some good work from Aki and Marmion got them deep into Ulster territory. Now they've put themselves in a position were they desperately need a win but they will have to do it at the RDS against a Leinster that will not be charitable in the least and looking to put things back in their natural order.

Our goal kicking is definitely an issue. Lets not forget that Carthy kicked very well against Newcastle at home(he won the match for us), Ronaldson missed kicks at crucial times in the away fixture against Newcastle. His misses today were , in at least one case inexcusable. McGinty missing the kick to touch from a penalty changed the whole game and we were on the back foot from that on, not acceptable in my view. Carthy's kicking to touch has been excellent in recent match's. Why can we not have two kickers in any match ?? Let Carthy kick from the left and Ronaldson kick from the right, who makes these decisions ???

We were almost trying too hard in the first quarter, and not putting anything on the board gave confidence to Ulster. The level of inaccuracy was deeply frustrating given how many good things we also did in that period. Like a couple of games this season (Munster & Cardiff spring to mind), we should almost have been unassailable by halftime except for mistakes!

I can only think that Ronaldson had some footing issues on the kicks because he has a huge boot and both were comfortably in range but struggled for distance. The contact sounds for both on TV were awful also, but that could be irrelevant.

I really don't know why Pat started Carty at 10 tonight if AJ is fit, The other provinces know his fallibility under pressure and Ulster made a point of going after him straight from the off. He lacks composure to deal with possession in traffic. The difference that AJ made was pretty clear, far more variety with carries, kicks. Yes the penalty he failed to find touch with was hugely damaging though, so late in the game but I would have loved to have seen him start given the importance of this fixture. We now go to Leinster with 1 win in four games, and they'll have taken a lot of encouragement from our lack of composure and inability to unlock Ulster's defence especially at home!

Can someone please tell me what Carty offers. I hate to be down on a guy who is obviously trying his best but we seem so much more composed with either Ronaldson or McGinty at 10. So much of our attacking play seems to bog down or just get very lateral with no directness or penetration when he plays.That was a terribly disappointing result and we don't really have anyone to blame but ourselves (bar the advantage which disappeared just before the sin-binning). Ulster offered very little bar the 2 scores they got and if we had been a little more clinical would have left with nothing. Hard to be too optimistic with the run of fixtures coming up.

The team effort was brilliant but without a reliable kicker or top controlling 10 we are leaving ourselves wide open to defeats like this its essential we recruit top quality only and this position is now crucial.
We dominated the game in almost every facet and we should have won but straightforward kicks at goal and vital kicks to touch were missed or poorly executed and we hardly ever turned them properly to make them think twice about their rush defence. I still think with Henshaw playing we would have got over for a try.
Loughney seems to be a knock on machine. The pitch was also in quite poor condition underfoot. Great heart but still you have to feel that its one where we let all the good effort go to waste.

Very frustrating defeat. Really started bright and should have scored in the first 10. Then the missed penalty for Ronaldson compounded by us turning our back and carelessly allowing Ulster up to our 22 from the 22 drop out, turning over our lineout and 0-3. Should have been ahead at half time. 2nd half penalty miss from Ronaldson again was unforgivable. His goal kicking has generally been quite good but not tonight. Ulster have tightened up in defence under Les Kiss so all penalty opportunities needed to be taken. Even at 3-3 it was there for us but the missed touch from MacGinty was fatal. As the games ratchet up in intensity, our lack of control at out half is again becoming apparent.

There were a lot of frustrating calls made on the night but tonight was one where ultimately the finger of blame has to be pointed completely at ourselves. 1 point is better than nothing but it should have been at least 2 and it just feels like we are falling away a bit With Ospreys having got their act together big time Top 6 looks a much more difficult proposition.

The positive is that we didn't lose any more to injury. Hard to be overly optimistic about the next 2 games after that one but we need to pick up a result or two to keep things ticking over until the start of the 6 nations where hopefully we can take advantage again.

Desperately disappointing. Especially the first half where if we'd been at the races we should have had a decent lead. Our kicking was so, so poor. Carty and Ronaldson had awful games and that put huge pressure on us. Ulster didn't even play that well and yet deserved to win, that says everything about our performance. Leinster game is massive now and will tell us if we're in a slump or not. AJ has to start, we looked much more composed when he came on.