Impeccable goal-kicking from John Cooney and a well-taken Kieran Treadwell try were enough to seal a hard-fought 16-12 win over Cardiff Blues at Kingspan Stadium, as Ulster kept the hear on the second-placed Scarlets in Conference B.
While never scintillating during this GUINNESS PRO14 round 10 encounter, Dan McFarland’s side did the basics well with a strong set piece and low penalty count, although Cardiff’s combative display made them good value for their losing bonus point.
Rob Herring’s 150th cap for the province marked his return from international duty along with the five other Ulstermen involved in Ireland’s unbeaten November run – centre Stuart McCloskey, flanker Jordi Murphy and scrum half John Cooney all came straight back into the starting XV, while Rory Best and Jacob Stockdale were on bench duty.
Cooney blasted Ulster into the lead as early as the second minute, dispatching a central penalty without fuss, and while the Blues retained the ball well from the restart, they failed to make real use of it and eventually knocked on under pressure from Billy Burns’ tackle.
Alert covering from Cooney then kept Harri Millard and Blaine Scully at bay as they chased the centre’s kick down the right wing, but quick hands from the resulting lineout saw full-back Matthew Morgan sneak in at the opposite corner flag for a ninth minute try, with a grounding that referee Stuart Berry was satisfied had not been lost forward.
Ulster trailed for barely three minutes, a turnover on halfway and a quickly-taken tap penalty from McCloskey setting the cat amongst the pigeons in the Cardiff defence, and Kieran Treadwell showed great dexterity to cleanly pick up his own kick-on from the McCloskey pass and roll across the line at speed.
The subsequent conversion from man-of-the-match Cooney meant that Jarrod Evans’ conversion of the next Blues try, scored by hooker Kristian Dacey from a 19th-munute rolling maul, edged the visitors back into the lead at 12-10.
At this stage the Ulster performance turned decidedly flat for a good 15 minutes, the cause hindered further by the loss of captain Alan O’Connor and Burns to injury and a head injury assessment respectively, just before half-time – the out-half was the recipient of a hard hit from former Ulster favourite Nick Williams.
With Ian Nagle and Johnny McPhillips sprung from the bench, Ulster soaked up some early second half pressure from the Blues, before further reinforcements arrived in the shape of Stockdale, who came on for Michael Lowry in the 44th minute with Louis Ludik switching to full-back.
Once some amateur pugilism involving McCloskey, Stockdale, Nagle and several Blues players had dissipated with no further action taken by referee Berry after TMO review, Best replaced Herring for the final half an hour, and Cardiff saw themselves reduced to 14 men with a yellow for lock Seb Davies after a late hit on Ross Kane at ruck time.
Cooney split the posts with a penalty just before the hour, and now with the lead – albeit a slender one – Ulster never looked back, first coming close in the 62nd minute with Henry Speight and Stockdale haring down on McPhillips’ kick to the corner which just eluded them both, before Cooney slotted another penalty four minutes later.
Cardiff piled forward from the restart, putting their all into the final 10 minutes, but their over-urgency cost them with the concession of penalties at two crucial moments, the second calling time on the game with the clock just into the red.
Giving his reaction afterwards, Ulster assistant coach Dwayne Peel said: “A scrappy game and it was a bit greasy underfoot and I thought Cardiff were very physical and put us under a lot of pressure. Obviously we’re very happy with the win. As coaches, we have a lot to work on but the four points for us is a happy feeling in the end.”
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