Ulster put in one of their finest displays of the season at Kingspan Stadium, running five tries past fellow top four hopefuls Glasgow Warriors to leapfrog the Scots into fifth place in the GUINNESS PRO12 table.
Returning Springbok Ruan Pienaar was peerless at scrum half and then out-half, contributing the bonus point try after earlier scores from Tommy Bowe, Jacob Stockdale and Sean Reidy.
Young talent Stockdale added a late fifth as Glasgow staged a spirited final quarter comeback attempt, and the victory elevates Ulster to 43 points, two ahead of today’s round 15 opponents.
As sixth hosted fifth at start of play, Ulster were bolstered by the return of Pienaar after six weeks out through injury, while Ireland Six Nations squad backs Bowe, Luke Marshall and Craig Gilroy – the scorer of that quick-fire hat-trick off the bench last weekend against Italy – all came straight back into the starting line-up.
Louis Ludik continued at full-back, with centre Darren Cave and out-half Peter Nelson, impressive on his return last week against Edinburgh, completing the province’s back-line.
Up front, John Andrew retained the number 2 jersey despite the rehabilitation of Rob Herring, who was named on the bench, with Callum Black and Ricky Lutton either side of him in the front row. Locks Peter Browne and Franco van der Merwe lined up ahead of a back row of Reidy, captain Chris Henry and last week’s debutant Marcell Coetzee.
Bone-crunching tackles were the order of the day as Ulster made a bright opening, with Cave, Bowe and Coetzee all on the receiving end of muscular challenges as they tried to penetrate the Glasgow rearguard within the first 90 seconds.
A kick and chase of a loose ball from the alert Andrew then got Ulster into the 22, and as Glasgow creaked under the pressure Pienaar slotted over a 10th minute penalty for the lead.
An awkward landing on his neck saw Ludik replaced by Stockdale moments later, and as Glasgow began to enjoy much more of the ball, only stern defence from Ulster kept them at bay until a pacy right wing break from Bowe and Pienaar got the scrum half to within centimetres of the line before losing control of the ball.
The resulting five-metre scrum was Ulster’s, however, and quick hands from both Pienaar and Stockdale got experienced international Bowe over in the corner on 21 minutes.
Another protracted pause – this time for a seemingly serious injury to Warriors winger Lee Jones, who was stretchered off – did nothing to upset Ulster’s rhythm, with Gilroy and Cave particularly artful, but when the second try came on 31 minutes, it was more about force than finesse as flanker Reidy powered his way over the whitewash from close range despite the attentions of two tacklers.
Pienaar added the extras and although the Warriors closed out the first half in possession, the frugality of the Ulster defence kept them out until the very stroke of half-time, full-back Brandon Thompson just sneaking over in the corner for an unconverted try and a 15-5 scoreline.
Multiple changes at the break brought on Andrew Warwick, Herring and Paul Marshall for Black, Andrew and Cave, and Pienaar kept the scoreboard ticking over with a 44th minute penalty after an intentional block on Gilroy as he chased his own kick.
Better still came on 48 minutes, as quick hands off a lineout allowed Stockdale to make a clean break through the centre and ground the ball between the posts, Pienaar’s conversion establishing a 20-point lead for Les Kiss’ charges.
The bonus point try five minutes later was a thing of beauty, started off deep in the Ulster 22 with a game-changing tackle from Bowe as Glasgow looked for all the world that they would be next on the scoresheet. Having wrestled back the ball, Ulster tore up the right flank, Stockdale, Nelson and Paul Marshall all involved in an electrifying move finished off by Pienaar’s angled run to the left corner as play was switched.
The incidents came thick and fast as first Glasgow flanker Rob Harley was sin-binned, then lock Scott Cummings was awarded a somewhat dubious try – he was adjudged by referee Dan Jones to have cleanly touched down his own kick through after charging down Marshall’s attempted clearance – although the replays, which Jones refused to consult, suggested the validity of the sliding Cummings’ grounding was debatable.
Cummings notched another between the posts with six minutes remaining – no doubts about the soundness of that one – and with Glasgow now playing much more cohesively than they had at any point previously, Ulster did well to soak up the pressure until another moment of brilliance from Stockdale saw the youngster bag his second of the afternoon as he outpaced all comers to touch down his own grubber kick.
This website uses cookies.
Read More