Timely Win Sends Ulster Up The Table
Ulster moved back up to fifth place in the Magners League table as first half tries from Darren Cave and Andrew Trimble laid the foundations for their 12-0 victory over Glasgow Warriors at Ravenhill on Saturday.
Ulster did all their scoring in the first half as they picked up their first Magners League victory since a memorable January triumph over Munster in Limerick.
Glasgow made the worst possible start when they leaked a third minute try to Ulster’s in-form centre Darren Cave, who sped through for his sixth try touchdown nine matches in all competitions.
Ironically, it was Scotland winger Simon Danielli who created the space for the score as he went on a diagonal run off an Ian Humphreys pass before putting the supporting Cave over close to the posts.
Humphreys added the conversion and while Glasgow responded well with their first real spell of possession, the home defence was rarely stretched.
Neither side could find their top gears and Glasgow’s stand-in captain Dan Parks added to the error count when he was wayward with a 45-metre penalty attempt and he then kicked the ball out over the end-line when attempting to find touch.
The Warriors lost a player to the sin-bin on 23 minutes when Canadian prop Kevin Tkachuk was sent to the line for a ruck offence.
Six minutes later, Ulster were celebrating their second try and it was a peach of a score from winger Andrew Trimble.
Again, man-of-the-match Danielli was involved in the build-up before Trimble broke into Glasgow territory on the right and slipped by two defenders on the way to the whitewash.
Humphreys missed the conversion and Park failed with his second shot at the posts, on the stroke of half-time.
Glasgow turned around with a 12-0 deficit and facing into a strong wind, Sean Lineen’s men were certainly up against it.
The rain also began to pelt down on the restart, making ball-handling particularly difficult and the quality of fare dipped.
Glasgow were having more of the possession but even after Ulster prop Justin Fitzpatrick was sin-binned for killing the ball, they could not capitalise and break their scoring duck.
Humphreys was off target with a penalty shot from 50 metres out and there had to be uncontested scrums with Fitzpatrick in the bin and Tom Court off receiving treatment.
Ulster, although living off less and less ball, continued to look the more potent side and a workmanlike display steered them to just a second win in their last seven meetings with Scottish opponents.