It was Stuart Lancaster’s aspect who registered the primary strive of the match after Jack Carty’s sturdy tempo set Sean Jansen as much as energy over from a ensuing penalty earlier than the conversion was kicked efficiently by Sean Naughton.
The hosts responded shortly with Bryn Ward, who was on as a head damage evaluation [HIA] alternative for Marcus Rea, breaking contact and beating defenders to edge near the strive line.
The again rower offloaded to Nathan Doak, who completed properly and transformed his personal attempt to stage issues.
Simply shy of half-time, Finlay Bealham was despatched to the bin for direct shoulder to move contact on Tom Stewart and the groups went into the altering rooms at seven factors apiece.
Murphy’s males got here out after the break initially making use of stress however a flurry of tries from Connacht within the last quarter gave them management.
Bealham crashed over from shut vary, earlier than Dave Heffernan’s offload despatched Treacy over within the nook for Connacht’s third strive of the night time to edge them in entrance.
Naughton added the primary conversion, however the second drifted huge.
Ulster tried to reply with Zac Ward accelerating down the left wing and throughout the dotted line, however the conversion was missed.
The tried comeback was not sufficient as Connacht continued their momentum and Finn Treacy fended off Jack Murphy and Zac Ward to recover from for his second strive of the night time and the all-important bonus level.
Naughton slotted the conversion, stretching the result in 12-26 with 10 minutes remaining.
A sequence of decide and goes from the Ulster males led to Angus Bell grounding the ball for Ulster’s third strive of the night time. After a short tv match official [TMO] evaluate, the strive stood, and Murphy took the conversion shortly to make it a one-try sport.
Then, with a minute left on the clock, Ulster received a penalty, however the ball went free and Ben Murphy thumped it out.
