Magners League: Ulster defeat Treviso; defeats for Munster and Connacht

Ulster won away to Treviso, Munster were well beaten by the Dragons, while Edinburgh came from behind to defeat Connacht in the Magners League on Friday night.

Benetton Treviso 9-19 Ulster

Two tries from in-form winger Craig Gilroy helped Ulster to a ten-point win over Benetton Treviso at the Stadio Monigo on Friday night.

Gilroy scored a brace of tries for the second game in succession in the Magners League, while Simon Danielli also touched down for Brian McLaughlin’s side.

The visitors led 14-6 at the break after Ian Humphreys converted tries from Gilroy and Danielli in response to two Tobie Botes penalties for the Italian side.

Gilroy extended Ulster’s lead to 13 points five minutes into the second half after latching onto a clever kick from Ian Humphreys.

Ulster failed to add another try which would have earned them a bonus point, but they went on to win comfortably and leapfrogged the Scarlets into second place in the table, four points behind leaders Munster.

Newport Gwent Dragons 20-6 Munster

Munster suffered a comprehensive defeat to the Newport Gwent Dragons at a snowbound Rodney Parade on Friday night.

The game was delayed due to adverse weather conditions, but once it did get underway, Munster started extremely slowly and trailed 17-3 at the break.

The Dragons were full value for their lead at half time thanks to tries from Tom Riley and Gavin Thomas and seven points from the boot of Jason Tovey, with Paul Warwick landing a solitary penalty for Munster in the opening 40 minutes.

Munster were far better after the break, but the Dragons coped with all the visitors had to throw at them and conceded only one Paul Warwick penalty, while adding six points of their own thanks to a penalty and a drop goal from Tovey.

Scott Deasy had a great chance at the death to seal a losing bonus point for Munster, but fumbled the ball beyond the try line after Warwick had kicked through a gap in the Dragons defence.

Despite the defeat, however, Munster remain four points clear at the top of the Magners League table.

Edinburgh 24-19 Connacht

At Murrayfield, Edinburgh came from behind to defeat a Connacht side now without a win in six Magners League encounters.

Freezing conditions made it difficult to play flowing rugby in the Scottish capital, but Connacht got off to an impressive start with two tries in the opening twenty minutes, both from winger Brian Tuohy.

Miah Nokora, an early replacement for Eoin Griffin, and Ian Keatley were involved in Tuohy’s opening try after 15 minutes, before Tuohy capitalised on a Nokora crossfield kick for his and Connacht’s second try five minutes later.

Chris Paterson scored a try, a conversion and a penalty in ten minutes to level the scores and it stayed level until the half time whistle.

After 15 minutes of the second half, Edinburgh had gone 11 points in front thanks to penalties from Paterson and David Blair and a try from Tim Visser.

Connacht didn’t give up, however and landed three penalties through Keatley (2) and Nokora with one from Paterson in reply to give them hope of snatching an unlikely victory.

Eric Elwood’s side had a chance from a scrum five metres from the Edinburgh line in the dying minutes, but the hosts held on and Connacht had to be content with a losing bonus point.