Ospreys End Ulster’s Winning Run

Ulster suffered their first defeat of the RaboDirect PRO12 campaign at the Liberty Stadium, finishing on the wrong end of a 32-14 scoreline.

Brian McLaughlin’s men lost out despite having outplayed the Ospreys for a considerable proportion of a match which saw Dan Biggar make the difference with a 20-point kicking haul.

Knocks picked up by Darren Cave and Ian Humpreys against Cardiff saw youngsters Luke Marshall and Paddy Jackson promoted into the starting back-line, while promising Academy player Blane McIlroy provided scrum half cover in the absence of the injured Ian Porter (ribs).

Ulster put in a veritable Jekyll and Hyde performance in the first half, playing all the constructive rugby and looking very impressive with ball in hand, but showing too much indiscipline at set piece time and gifting the Ospreys 12 easy points.

The visitors made a confident start to the game, and young Jackson had seven points on the scoreboard within four minutes.

Quick passing from Pedrie Wannenburg and Lewis Stevenson invited Jackson to attack outside the hosts’ 22 and rather than opting for a simple pass, he stepped on the gas and outstripped the Ospreys cover to score his first league try.

Two missed penalties swiftly followed, one from Biggar which hit the upright and another from Jackson on halfway which veered just right of the posts.

Biggar opened the Welsh region’s account in the 13th minute. Jackson had the chance to restore the Ulster lead to seven points two minutes later, but pulled his kick wide of the left hand post this time.

Although reduced to 14 men after hooker Richard Hibbard had been sin-binned for dissent at a scrum, the Ospreys were able to claw back three more points through Biggar.

And with Ulster conceding penalty after penalty at the breakdown, the out-half then propelled his side into a 9-7 lead on the half hour mark.

Biggar made it three in-a-row in the 34th minute after yet more Ulster indiscipline, but as the half neared its end, an inspired kick from Jackson almost fashioned a try out of nothing.

From a seemingly innocuous position in midfield, he brilliantly picked out his Ireland Under-20 colleague Craig Gilroy on the right wing, and the pacy winger made good ground before passing to Dan Tuohy.

Determined defending from the Ospreys stamped out the danger from this move, but as the half ended Ulster continued to prove themselves the more creative side.

The province went close again following a strong maul with good work from Ian Whitten in particular. The attack was blighted by a very marginal knock on, however, and Ulster trotted off at half-time somewhat unfortunate to 12-7 behind.

The opening minutes of the second period saw the Ospreys’ best possession of the encounter to date, but superb Ulster defence frustrated each raid the Welshmen made, and forced Biggar into a fruitless drop goal attempt.

But during the Ospreys’ next attack, Tuohy was penalised and yellow carded for not rolling away after making a tackle, and Biggar wasted no time in extending the lead to eight points.

With the Ospreys pushing for another score, a five-metre scrum after Chris Henry’s deflection of a Biggar drop goal attempt looked ominous for the men in white.

However, resilient work from the visiting front row succeeded in reversing the scrum in the first instance, before a further infringement put the Ospreys back in charge.

The scrum reset several more times, and with the Ulster front row popping up for the third consecutive time, referee Dudley Phillips awarded a penalty try. This was converted by Biggar to give the region a 22-7 buffer.

Biggar continued his rich vein of kicking form in the 65th minute with another penalty, and Ospreys winger Richard Fussell put the result beyond any doubt seven minutes later.

He capitalised on a lucky bounce and some hesitation between Whitten and Paddy McAllister to run in a try behind the posts unopposed. The conversion was added by replacement Matthew Morgan.

With only five minutes remaining, Ulster eventually got themselves deep into Ospreys territory, and were rewarded for a strong, never-say-die drive from the lineout with a penalty try of their own. The hosts were adjudged to have dragged down the maul metres from the line when a try looked certain.

Replacement James McKinney converted the score and Ulster had sufficient time to launch one final attack. There was some outstanding handling from Gilroy and McIlroy before a knock on by the attacking side prompted Phillips to bring proceedings to an end.