{"id":616001,"date":"2026-09-06T06:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T06:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/616001\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T06:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T06:06:15","slug":"round-up-ulster-and-connacht-bag-first-pre-season-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/616001\/","title":{"rendered":"Round up: Ulster and Connacht bag first pre-season wins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ulster and Connacht recorded their first pre-season victories in two tense tussles over the weekend.<\/p>\n

On Friday night, Richie Murphy’s Ulster scraped past fellow URC challengers Edinburgh in Scotland, three weeks prior to their opening league clash on 25 September. As for Connacht, they were big winners over English CHAMP side Ealing Trailfinders, who’s squad featured four Irish players.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nRichie Murphy’s side edged past Edinburgh<\/p>\n

Edinburgh 26 Ulster 28<\/p>\n

Ulster got their pre-season campaign off to an ideal start with a narrow two-point victory over Edinburgh in the Hive Stadium on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Debutant half-backs Jamie Benson and Matthew Devine combined for 11 points, with the former Connacht man scoring a first-half try, as Ulster raced into a 14 point lead after just 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

With a 27-man travelling squad named by Richie Murphy, all eyes were on the plentiful supply of new faces. Benson and Devine combined at half-back, Daniel Hawkshaw and Chay Mullins also started in the backline with Eduardo Bello, Ben Donnell, Eli Snyman and Martin Moloney all among the replacements. Academy prospects Flynn Longstaff and Jed Findlay rounded off the debutants from the bench also.<\/p>\n

The visitors raced into an early lead helped by set-piece dominance. A scrum penalty win led to the first try, with hooker James McCormick dotting down from the back of a powerful rolling maul. Edinburgh responded with a try of their own courtesy of centre Geordie Gwynn, but then came Ulster’s gear change.<\/p>\n

Ben Carson’s crisp pass sent former Ireland Under-20s winger Aitzol Arenzana-King away down the left wing to score, before Matthew Devine got on the end of a brilliant attack, assisted by his former Connacht teammate Chay Mullins, to bag Ulster’s second try in just a four minute spell.<\/p>\n

The home side pulled one back before the break as Hector Patterson got in on the act, but Ulster would put the contest to bed shortly into the second half as Eric O’Sullivan scored Ulster’s fourth try, which Jake Flannery converted.<\/p>\n

The out-half was one of four half-time changes by Richie Murphy who also introduced debutants Bello and Donnell as well as James McNabney, who missed all of last season through injury.<\/p>\n

Edinburgh scored two more tries to reduce the gap to two points, but a late missed conversion by Ross Thompson meant victory for the Ulster men.<\/p>\n

Ulster: Michael Lowry (capt); Chay Mullins, Ben Carson, Daniel Hawkshaw, Aitzol Arenzana-King; Jamie Benson, Matthew Devine; Eric O’Sullivan, James McCormick, Tom McAllister; Harry Sheridan, Joe Hopes; James McKillop, Tom Brigg, David McCann.<\/p>\n

Replacements: Henry Walker, Flynn Longstaff, Eduardo Bello, Ben Donnell, Eli Snyman, Martin Moloney, James McNabney, Clark Logan, Jake Flannery, Jonny Scott, Jed Findlay, Jack Murphy.<\/p>\n

\"15
\nMack Hansen started at full-back in Connacht’s win<\/p>\n

Connacht 26 Ealing Trailfinders 14<\/p>\n

Back on home soil, Stuart Lancaster’s Connacht overcame a stiff challenge from the Ealing Trailfinders, coming out on top by 26-14 in Galway’s Dexcom Stadium.<\/p>\n

After an agonising late loss to Vannes on 28 August, the men from the west welcomed back the likes of Finlay Bealham and Cathal Forde to the fold, as South African prop Francois van Wyk made his debut in green, following an off-season switch from Bath. As for the visitors, Ealing’ squad featured former Munster men Patrick Campbell, Fionn Gibbons and Rory Scannell.<\/p>\n

It was a slow start in Galway, with over a half an hour of rugby in the books before the games opening score. Se\u00e1n O’Brien’s try broke the longstanding deadlock following a sharp break from Se\u00e1n Naughton, who was making a rare start at out-half. Shamus Hurley-Langton pulled them further clear with a close range finish before the break, with Naughton adding two conversion attempts to give the hosts a 14-0 lead at half-time.<\/p>\n

Hooker Eoin de Buitl\u00e9ar pulled Connacht three scores clear from the back of strong rolling maul in the 49th minutes, before Ealing finally got off the mark. Former Ireland under-20 international Hayden Hyde as in the right place at the right time, interception a looping pass from Mack Hansen to race in and score.<\/p>\n

Finn Treacy all but ended the contest ten minutes later with a try of his own. Despite a shaky scrum, Caolin Blade broke against the run of play and glided a neat pass to Treacy who strolled home in the corner.<\/p>\n

Hyde got his second try as the clock hit 80, as Connacht secured a hard fought victory.<\/p>\n

Lancaster’s men are next in action in round one of the URC when the DHL Stormers come to town on 25 September.<\/p>\n

Connacht: Mack Hansen; Shayne Bolton, Byron Ralston, Cathal Forde, Finn Treacy; Sean Naughton, Ben Murphy; Francois Van Wyk, Dave Heffernan, Finlay Bealham; Josh Murphy, David O’Connor; Sean O’Brien, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Paul Boyle (capt).<\/p>\n

Replacements: Eoin de Buitl\u00e9ar, Jordan Duggan, Fiachna Barrett, Niall Murray, Diarmaid O’Connell, Max Flynn, Caolin Blade, John Devine, Shane Jennings, Sam Gilbert, Colm Reilly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ulster and Connacht recorded their first pre-season victories in two tense tussles over the weekend. On Friday night,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-616001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}