In front of a sell out home crowd at Kingspan Stadium, Ulster were looking to carry on momentum from an impressive away win at Connacht before Christmas.
The Ulster men were welcoming back some important players from injury including wingers Rob Baloucoune, Jacob Stockdale, fly half Billy Burns and number eight Duane Vermeulen.
Munster were looking for a reaction after a narrow defeat to Leinster on Boxing Day and were missing two big players with club captain Peter O’Mahoney and Tadhg Beirne both unavailable.
The home side started the match on top with most of the control and good field position - Ulster had some early joy in their lineouts but the game had quite a scrappy start.
Both sides gave away penalties but Ulster made the most of Munster’s mistakes as they chose to kick for points.
The first half quickly became a story of John Cooney as he continued his good kicking form by nailing three kicks out of three penalties to give Ulster a 9-0 lead.
Ulster then received a huge blow on 30 minutes as tighthead prop Marty Moore suffered an injury that needed medical treatment. Moore could play no further part and was replaced by Gareth Milasinovich.
All the pressure was coming from Munster and it forced Ulster into giving away some fouls and penalties. Matters were made worse when in-form hooker Tom Stewart was sent to the sin bin after a yellow card for being offside after a previous caution.
Munster then threw the kitchen sink at Ulster who defended phase after phase with some last ditch defending with some huge tackles that delighted the home supporters. They were eventually awarded some reward for their efforts as Munster conceded a penalty and the attack was halted for the half.
HT : Ulster 9 – Munster 0
Munster came back out for the second half with great intensity to get back into the game.
The away side made use of their man advantage with Tom Stewart still sin-binned and scored an early try in the 44th minute through Paddy Patterson.
Despite the try Jack Crowley could only hit the upright of the post which kept the score at 9-5.
Ulster tried to respond afterwards by getting their attack going but a couple of sloppy passes and a stolen lineout put a stop to any momentum.
On 68 minutes, a breakthrough. Ulster scored their first try of the match with a beautifully worked build up in attack. Stuart McCloskey had great vision and execution to pick out Robert Baloucoune in acres of space down Munster’s left, and Baloucoune showed great explosive speed to reach the try line and take Ulster to 14 points.
A welcome return to action for Baloucoune.
Cooney’s replacement Nathan Doak was unable to convert from his difficult kick close to the touchline which kept the scoreline at 14-5.
This set up an intense final 10 minutes that saw Munster pile on the pressure to get back into the game. In the 74th minute, substitute Jordi Murphy was penalised for illegally playing the ball and Munster’s substitute fly half Ben Healy made no mistake from the kick.
Munster continued to pile on the pressure straight away as the impressive Jack Crowley drove his way through Ulster’s defence to gain field position for the away side. A penalty gave Munster the chance to kick to the corner and prepare another assault on Ulster’s try line.
Despite brave, bruising defending from Ulster, Munster finally found a way to break Ulster down and Ben Healy barged his way over for a try.
With the clock over 80 minutes, it was too late for Ulster to respond to Munster’s comeback and Healy made no mistake converting his own score to snatch an away win at the death.
FT : Ulster 14 – Munster 15
URC Player of the Match: Jack Crowley
Reaction
“We had the ball eleven times in their 22 and scored once. We lost the ball on ten occasions, and the only time we kept the ball through phases we scored a great try. We lost three lineouts and to be fair Munster were magnificent when they held onto the ball and scored twice and that was the game. “
Line-Ups
Ulster
(15-9) Stewart Moore; Rob Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Billy Burns, John Cooney;
(1-8) Rory Sutherland, Tom Stewart, Marty Moore; Kieran Treadwell, Iain Henderson (C); Greg Jones, Sean Reffell, Duane Vermeulen.
Replacements: Gareth Milasinovich for Moore (29), Nathan Doak for Cooney (62), Sam Carter for Treadwell (62), Eric O'Sullivan for Sutherland (65), Jordi Murphy for Jones (65), Jake Flannery for Burns (73), John Andrew for Stewart (76), Ethan McIlroy for Stockdale (77).
Munster
(15-9) Mike Haley; Shane Daly, Antoine Frisch, Malakai Fekitoa, Keith Earls; Jack Crowley, Paddy Patterson
(1-8) Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell, Roman Salanoa; Jean Kleyn, Kiran McDonald; Jack O'Donoghue (C), Alex Kendellen, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Ben Healy for Fekitoa (52), Conor Murray for Patterson (56), Patrick Campbell for Earls (63), Josh Wycherley for Kilcoyne (65), Stephen Archer for Salanoa (69), Scott Buckley for Scannell (69).
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)