Wales is proving a frustrating place for Ulster to visit – Saturday’s defeat to the Newport Gwent Dragons was the province’s fifth successive loss on Welsh soil and capped off a forgettable weekend for the Irish sides in the Magners League.
Ulster coach Mark McCall was left counting the cost of a high error count as his side slipped to back-to-back league defeats. Last week’s reversal at Edinburgh might have been termed a blip had Ulster continued their form of the past two years against the Dragons.
The northerners had beaten the Dragons four times since February 2005 and travelled with intent, helped by the inclusions of on-form youngsters Darren Cave and Paul Marshall.
But without 13 players in all due to injury or recovery from the World Cup, McCall’s men could not spark to life and two yellow cards for Matt McCullough and David Pollock, allied to the concession of a controversial second try, turned the game in the hosts’ favour.
Not that the Dragons needed much help. Boosted by the return of Welsh internationals Kevin Morgan, Ceri Sweeney and Michael Owen, they shot into a 8-0 lead with just eight minutes on the clock.
Ulster were called offside at the breakdown, allowing out-half Sweeney to boot his side in front and winger Gareth Wyatt had plenty of space to run in the game’s opening try after the Ulster defence had been caught flat-footed.
Niall O’Connor, deputising once again for the injured David Humphreys, claimed Ulster’s first points 17 minutes in when he fired a lengthy penalty through the uprights.
As the half wore on, Ulster came more and more into the game. Under pressure from a number of Dragons player, winger Mark McCrea showed good defensive skills to field a cross-field kick from Sweeney and keep out a try.
Cave, making his first start for his province, had the whitewash in his sights soon after but after being set free by Tommy Bowe, the Ireland ‘A’ international was caught by a well-timed tackle from Dragons’ Joe Bearman and the move petered out.
Persistent infringing at the ruck saw Ulster lose flanker McCullough to the sin bin on 34 minutes and the indiscretion allowed Sweeney to kick the Welshmen 11-3 clear. He added another penalty in injury-time as the Dragons turned around with an 11-point buffer.
Ulster started the second half well with O’Connor landing a 44th-minute penalty to reduce the gap. But their good early work was undone when Pollock saw yellow for slowing up Dragons ball at a ruck close to the Ulster try line. Sweeney knocked over the resulting penalty.
The Dragons then scored a try which left the Ulster management angered. On 58 minutes, Ulster were turned over and Rhodri Gomer Davies was fed what looked like a forward pass.
The Ulster defence stopped, expecting a whistle from referee George Clancy but there was none and the Dragons centre was allowed to canter over under the posts from 40 metres out.
Sweeney’s conversion meant Ulster were 24-6 behind with 20 minutes remaining. They struck for their only try of the game, just two minutes after Gomer Davies’ effort, as good hands from Simon Danielli, McCullough and Bowe helped replacement prop Tom Court crash over in the corner.
O’Connor missed the conversion and McCall sent Italian World Cup lock Carlo Del Fava and another summer signing, Kieran Hallett, into the fray for the closing minutes.
The Dragons rounded off the win – their first since their opening weekend success at the Scarlets – with an injury-time try from lock Luke Charteris as Ulster heads began to drop. Now bottom of the league table, Ulster face a tricky trip to the Scarlets next Friday and McCall intends to draft in some of his Ireland World Cup players for the Stradey Park clash.
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