Ulster head coach Dan McFarland has said that he is going to talk to the referees about their decision to award Tiernan O’Halloran a first-half try during Ulster’s 22-15 loss to Connacht on Friday.
The win for Connacht gave Andy Friend’s side their first win in Belfast in 58 years as tries either side of half-time from O’Halloran and centre Bundee Aki gave the western province a hard-fought win.
Ulster had two tries disallowed after full-back Peter Nelson and winger Angus Kernohan were both called back for being in front of Jacob Stockdale’s kicks while McFarland felt that Ulster centre Stuart McCloskey was blocked on an attempted tackle on Connacht winger Matt Healy prior to O’Halloran’s score.
“It was a game that as you went through it was just one thing after another,” said McFarland.
“It punched us in the stomach right from their first try which they looked at on the TMO but to me it looked like clear blocking. I’m going to have to ask a question on that because if we are allowed to that, we’ll definitely be doing that, we’ll do that every week.
“It’s a great way to stop defenders from getting to attackers. Then we scored two tries that were marginally offside, but they were offside, it was inches.
“I was speaking to Nick [Timoney] there and it’s almost better if you haven’t done it because it’s deflating after you’ve been so close because that’s 14 points or 10 points.
“In terms of the game itself we looked at it and we thought we defended really well. We defended with 13 men at one point and kept them out and then defended with 14 men in the second-half and defended really well so it was a major step up for us in terms of the defence. There were a couple of sucker punches in there that really cost us.”
Dan McFarland not happy with the referee’s decision to award Tiernan O’Halloran a try, felt that Tom Farrell had blocked Stuart McCloskey, but he was okay with the decision to send Matthew Rea off. Felt it was in accordance with the laws. #ULSvCON pic.twitter.com/1LbvN5eqvc
— Jack O'Toole (@jackjotoole) October 6, 2018
Matthew Rea’s dismissal just after half-time was definitely a sucker punch for Ulster as they tried to reverse a nine point deficit at the break but McFarland was fine with the decision and felt that it was in accordance with the laws.
“I think in the laws of the game it was a red card,” added McFarland.
“If you’re play AFL (Australian Rules Football) it’s not a red card but we’re not. That’s the laws. To me when I looked at it, I’ve only seen it first up and a couple of times since but yeah I thought it was a red card.”
Matthew Rea sent off for huge tackle on Cian Kelleher in the air
