Ulster Battle Their Way To Murrayfield Win

Tries from Ruan Pienaar and Darren Cave, backed up by sheer stubborn resistance as they defended their lead with 13 men in the closing minutes, saw Ulster leave BT Murrayfield tonight with a hard-fought 20-17 win over Edinburgh.

While the victory may well prove vital in the quest for a top four GUINNESS PRO12 finish, the red card picked up by Stuart McCloskey and an injury sustained by Iain Henderson will leave Neil Doak’s men with a bitter taste in their mouths as they travel back to Belfast.

The home of Scottish rugby was offered little in terms of spectacle in the first period, with Ulster controlling much of the ball but rarely threatening with it, while errors and poor kicking combined to frustrate much of the game’s fluency.

Early possession for Ulster generated little real threat, and the visitors’ lack of ruthlessness was punished on eight minutes in the very first Edinburgh attack. A strong aerial take from Dougie Fife at the expense of Michael Allen let loose prop Neil Cochrane, whose marauding run set up Phil Burleigh to touch down out wide.

Following Tom Heathcote’s missed conversion, Ulster were back level within five minutes. Ruan Pienaar stretched over from close range after good recycling from Darren Cave and strong ball-carrying from Henderson had taken the lock to within a metre of the try-line before he was brought to ground.

Pienaar’s conversion was followed by four penalty attempts from the erratic Heathcote, two of which hit the target to establish a four-point lead by the half hour mark. The goal-kickers then traded penalties for a 14-10 scoreline before a somewhat lacklustre first half for Ulster came to its end.

Another errant Heathcote penalty early in the second period made sure the province stayed within touching distance.

As Ulster eschewed three points with a penalty to touch on 47 minutes, good ground made off the lineout by centre McCloskey earned another penalty even closer to the posts, which Pienaar this time elected to kick for goal.

With Ulster tails now up, successive offloads from Henderson and Nick Williams on the verge of the 22 created the space for Cave to burst through for his eighth try of the season, converted by Pienaar for a 20-14 lead.

Two events then followed in quick succession to make the Ulster task all the more difficult, as Henderson hobbled off to be replaced by Lewis Stevenson. Just four minutes late, McCloskey saw himself red carded for a tackle on Hamish Watson that was deemed dangerous by referee Leighton Hodges – the Emerging Ireland back lifted and then tipped the flanker in the air at the back of a ruck.

Edinburgh edged their way closer on 65 minutes courtesy of a Heathcote penalty and although the out-half missed his chance to equalise four minutes later, Ulster were soon down to 13 men with lock Franco van der Merwe sent to the sin-bin for taking a man out in the air at the lineout.

Heavily depleted now, Ulster wisely chose not to contest the subsequent lineout, deploying all their manpower in the defence of the Edinburgh charge, and eventually snatching possession back for Pienaar to clear from behind his own line and snuff out Edinburgh’s last attack.

Seeing out the game with a scrum on halfway, Ulster ran off relieved to secure four valuable away points which reinstate them as joint leaders on 48 points with Glasgow, although the Warriors, as well as fourth- and fifth-placed Munster and the Ospreys, are still to play over the course of the weekend.