Edinburgh 14
Ulster 43
THE IRISH HEX over Scottish sides continued in style as Ulster ran away with a bonus-point win in Edinburgh, yet again dominating the final quarter and cashing in on a home sin bin to run away with a game that had looked competitive for the first hour. It means they go top of the Pro14 Pool A after Leinster’s match with the Scarlets was postponed.
The last time these teams played at Murrayfield, Ulster twice came back from 12 points behind and snatched a dramatic win with the final kick of the match but they were determined to make sure there was no repeat of that nerve-shredding showing this time.
What’s more, they were prepared to do it with style, opening with two and a half minutes of non-stop action, which ended only when hooker John Andrew escaped down the touchline and found support inside from John Cooney to put Stewart Moore, the centre, in for the score.
That was just the start as Edinburgh kept giving away penalties. This time Andrew was the man to go over at the back of a driving maul and minutes later the men in white had the third try, this time from Cooney as another maul broke up and his dummy fooled the home defence.
The dream start was bound to falter, though it took more than half an hour for the Scots to put any sort of pressure on the northern province’s line. When they did, however, they made it count as they hammered the line before releasing the backs for Jack Blain, the full back, to cross.
The score gave his side a glimmer of hope at 19-7 down at the break – coincidentally exactly the scoreline Ulster recovered from in the Pro14 semi final in August. There was even more hope for the Scots at the start of the second half when they opened with a flourish, Eroni Sau, the wing, standing tall in the tackle and putting Blain in for his second.
Sitting on a five-point lead, Ulster had a lucky break when Edinburgh thought they had scored when wing Jamie Farndale reacted first to a penalty that came back off the post only to be called back for offside, and they made the Scots pay for the mistake.
A series of penalties got them to the Edinburgh line and another maul put Jordi Murphy over for the bonus point try – a double boost with Edinburgh losing inspirational number eight Viliame Mata to the sin bin at the same time.
That was enough to settle the result with Cooney capitalising on some magic from Ian Madigan and Sam Carter to grab the fifth try before yet another maul produced try number six, Andrew collecting his second as the men in white pulled clear. And the Ulster hooker completed his hat trick for good measure as he touched down from the final maul of the game.
Scorers for Edinburgh: Try: Blain 2. Con: Chamberelain (2).
Scorers for Ulster: Tries: Moore, Andrew (3), Cooney (2), Murphy. Cons: Cooney (4).
EDINBURGH: Jack Blain; Eroni Sau, James Johnstone (Alec Coombes, 70), Chris Dean, Jamie Farndale ; Nathan Chamberlain, Henry Pyrgos (Captain) (Charlie Shiel, 68); Pierre Schoeman (Sam Grahamslaw, 77), David Cherry (Mike Willemse, 65), Lee-Roy Atalifo (Dan Gamble, 70), Andries Ferreira (Jamie Hodgson, 54), Andrew Davidson, Magnus Bradbury, Luke Crosbie (Connor Boyle, 70), Ally Miller (Viliame Mata, 49).
ULSTER: Michael Lowry; Matt Faddes, James Hume, Stewart Moore, Rob Lyttle (Aaron Sexton, 9); Ian Madigan (Bill Johnston, 70), John Cooney (David Shanahan, 68); Andrew Warwick (Kyle McCall, 49), John Andrew , Marty Moore (Gareth Milasinovich, 51), Alan O’Connor (David O’Connor, 62), Sam Carter (Captain), Sean Reidy (David McCann, 69), Jordi Murphy, Marcell Coetzee (Bradley Roberts, 74).
Referee: Craig Evans (Wales).
Bernard Jackman, Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey pick up the pieces — all of them — after Ireland’s Twickenham defeat:
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