Ulster try machine Jacob Stockdale hailed his team’s 21-14 URC victory over reigning champions Munster.
The Irish international winger landed his fourth try of the season to spark the host’s revival in front of a near 15,000 crowd at the Kingspan Stadium.
Munster had sped into a 14-3 lead with two touchdowns from scrum-half Craig Casey in the opening quarter. However, Stockdale’s riposte cut the deficit to six points at half-time.
After drawing level through the boot of Neil Doak, Ulster went ahead when No 8 Nick Timoney profited from a powerful scrum drive. Ulster held on in the closing stages to consign the title holders to their first defeat of the campaign.
“That’s an incredible win, to be honest” said the 37-times capped Stockdale. “Obviously Munster are a really, really good team with a lot of talented players in there.
“You saw in the first 20 minutes they hammered us physically, but luckily we responded and then kept that going for the rest of the game.
“A win like that, in front of a packed out crowd, those are the games you never forget” added Stockdale.
Telling Try
Stockdale’s try came on 26 minutes, collecting a pinpoint Billy Burns cross-kick on the bounce after a prolonged passage of attacking from Ulster.
“The ball is starting to bounce for me again, which is nice,” smiled Stockdate. “We are being encouraged to play a really expansive style of rugby and if it’s on we take it”.
“Billy saw it really early on and it’s kind of weird. “You can make eye contact 60 metres away and you kind of both know”.
“Billy has been doing that every single week since he has been here. It was an awesome kick and I was just lucky enough to finish it off.”
“I am really proud of the guys” declared Ulster coach Dan McFarland. “It was an interpro game against the champions. They were unbeaten coming up here. They are a good team, a strong team”.
“We obviously started off and gave them access into the game with a couple of uncharacteristic errors and they got 14 points up”.
“We had to battle back from that and that was always going to be difficult against Munster”.
“But some of the rugby we played in that middle third of the game was excellent”.
Game of the weekend - Edinburgh 25 Connacht 22
Connacht were looking to make it four league wins-in-a-row at the start of a season for the first time since 2002.
Edinburgh were aiming to bounce back from last week’s defeat to Leinster. It had the Hive Stadium absolutely buzzing throughout, right up to the dramatic conclusion.
It all came down to the last minute! And the final kick of the game as fly-half Ben Healy slotted a drop goal to snatch back the spoils. Edinburgh sealing a 25-22 victory.
Connacht looked to have secured a draw when flanker Cian Prendergast forced his way over five minutes from time. It was three tries a piece overall, with the pendulum swinging back and forth in a coruscating affair.
In the final game of the weekend, the Dragons RFC went down 33-10 to Leinster at Rodney Parade. Wales back row forward Taine Basham red carded for an elbow to the head of fly-half Ross Byrne.
