Connacht (6) 6
Pens: Keatley (2)
Ulster (7) 30
Tries: Cave, Botha, Nagusa, Humphreys Cons: Humphreys (2) Pens: Humphreys (2)

Ray Ofisa races clear of lunging Ulster captain Paddy Wallace

Ulster returned to winning ways with a convincing 30-6 Magners League win over Connacht at the Sportsground in Galway.

Darren Cave scored an early try which Ian Humphreys converted but Ian Keatley replied with two penalties to leave the score 7-6 to Ulster at the interval.

BJ Botha barged over for a try after a minute of the second half, Humphreys converting and adding two penalties.

Timoci Nagusa touched down in the corner in the 68th minute and Humphreys sealed a bonus point with his late try.

Keatley missed with his first penalty attempt of the game in the second minute and two minutes later Cave accepted a pass from Humphreys and powered through several Connacht tackles to score the opening try.

Keatley was successful with his next two penalty efforts in the seventh and 19th minutes as the home side enjoyed the upper hand but were unable to make their superiority count on the scoreboard.

Botha bundled over under the posts to give Ulster an early second-half boost and Humphreys added the two points to give Brian McLaughlin's side an eight-point advantage.

Humphreys kicked two more penalties while Keatley narrowly missed as he attempted to reduce the deficit.

Winger Nagusa completed a fine move by brushing off the challenge of Gavin Duffy and scoring in the corner, Humphreys missing the conversion on this occasion.

With five minutes remaining, Humphreys secured the bonus point by diving in at the corner for his side's fourth try, just reward for his side's second half domination over their Irish provincial rivals.

The fly-half failed to convert his own try but will be happy with his overall performance and a personal tally of 15 points.

Connacht: G Duffy; B Tuohy, T Nathan, K Matthews, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, J Hagan, A Browne, B Upton, J Muldoon, capt, R Ofisa, M McComish.
Replacements: A Flavin, R Morris (for Hagan 59), M McCarthy (for McComish 55), J O'Connor (for Ofisa 55), C O'Loughlin (for F Murphy 68), L Bibo (for Tuohy 59), A Wynne (for Keatley 68).

Ulster: C Schifcofske; T Nagusa, P Wallace, capt, D Cave, S Danielli; I Humphreys, I Boss; T Court, A Kyriacou, BJ Botha, E O'Donoghue, D Tuohy, C Henry, W Faloon, R Diack.
Replacements: N Brady (for Kyriacou 72), D Fitzpatrick (for Botha 65), N McComb (for O'Donoghue 77), T Anderson (for Henry 65), P Marshall (for Boss 77), I Whitten (for Wallace 77), A Trimble (for Danielli 32).

Referee: George Clancy (IRFU).

Attendance: 3,000

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