Ulster (6) 30
Tries: Dawson, Del Fava, Wilson
Cons: Wallace 3
Pens: Wallace 3

Ulster moved off the bottom of the Magners League as they beat Connacht in a scrappy basement battle in Galway.

Paddy Wallace's two penalties gave Ulster a 6-3 lead at the interval with Tim Donnelly replying for Connacht.

Daniel Riordan's try helped edge Connacht 10-6 ahead but Kieron Dawson's quick reply restored Ulster's lead.

Andy Dunne levelled for Connacht but Paddy Wallace restored Ulster's lead and Carlo Del Fava and Roger Wilson notched late tries for the visitors.

The result drops Connacht to the bottom of the table while Ulster also struck an important blow in the context of qualifying for next season's Heineken Cup.

Wallace put Ulster ahead on six minutes but the error-ridden opening half hour had plenty of evidence while both teams are struggling in this year's league.

Simon Danielli's run earned Ulster a penalty on 32 minutes, with Andrew Farley infringing, and Wallace punished the indiscretion to double the away side's advantage.

Connacht fly-half Tim Donnelly ended the dismal first half by striking a penalty to cut Ulster's lead to 6-3.

606: DEBATE Give your thoughts on Ulster's win in Galway

Ulster produced intense pressure straight after the break with Tommy Bowe looking lively but poor handling by Matt McCullough and Andrew Trimble meant scoring opportunities were squandered.

The northerners then lost Neil Best for 10 minutes with the Ireland international sin-binned for a blatant offside.

Connacht exploited their man advantage with Daniel Riordan racing clear to score after a John Muldoon kick had deflected off Ulster's Mark Bartholomeusz.

Donnelly's conversion added to Connacht's lead but the fly-half then produced a dreadful pass which forced Conor McPhillip's knock-on and Ulster took advantage to force pressure which resulted in Dawson scoring in a blindside move.

Wallace added the extras to increase Ulster's lead to 13-10 and while lively replacement fly-half Dunne levelled for Connacht, the Ulster number 10 immediately restored his team's lead.

With gaps starting to appear in the Connacht defence, intense Ulster pressure led to Italian international Del Flava completing an overlap move on 63 minutes.

The impeccable Wallace again added the conversion and he notched another two points in injury-time after Wilson had charged over for Ulster's final try.

"We were under massive pressure having had such a bad start to the season so it's good to get a win and relieve a lot of pressure from a lot of guys.

"The late try put a gloss on the scoreline but I thought we deserved the victory.

"The win was more down to the front eight than myself.

"At the moment, Steve Williams is at the helm and he's doing a good job, keeping everybody's mind on the job but bringing a little bit of a more relaxed attitude to training and the match days."

"We were in the game at half-time and we competed well for the first half of the second half

"But Ulster throughout the match had the edge on us in the contact area which meant they were getting more break ball and more penalties than us.

"After we went ahead in the second half, we immediately conceded territory from the kick-off which was very disappointing."

Connacht: G Duffy; A Wynne, D Riordan, M Deane, O Treviranus; T Donnelly, C McPhillips; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Morris; M Swift, A Farley (cpt); M McCarthy, J O'Connor, J Muldoon.
Replacements: J Merrigan, R Loughney, A Browne, R Ofisa, C O'Loughlin, A Dunne, D Yapp.