BKT United Rugby Championship: Glasgow Warriors 17 Ulster 11
Ulster fell to a six-point reverse to the Glasgow Warriors on Friday night but John Cooney’s late penalty means that they cling onto third spot in the URC by the narrowest of margins.
With just five games left to play, only four points separate those lying from third to sixth as the race for a top four finish and a home quarter-final hots up.
Cooney’s late effort was scant consolation for the Ulstermen who started the second half with a three-point advantage. But the hosts, boasted by a more powerful bench, bossed the second 40 minutes to claim a deserving win.
Glasgow number eight and Player of the Match Jack Dempsey crashed over the line midway through the half before Fraser Brown’s effort in the closing stages confirmed the win for Franco Smith’s side.
Afterwards a dejected head coach Dan McFarland confessed that his side's discipline led to their downfall but he also had questions over the legality of Dempsey’s effort after the maul seemed to break away while some defenders were left obstructed as the initial maul kept moving forwards.
“I think we’re pretty disappointed with our performance in the second half. We gave away too many penalties at the set piece,” said McFarland.
“I’m also a little bit disappointed as I didn’t understand some of the refereeing decisions. There was definitely an opportunity for changing lanes at mauls but they weren’t penalised but also, we didn’t defend the maul very well. So, we look to our set piece to be stronger.”
But when it comes to the video review, Ulster will look back at their first half showing and wonder how they only came away with one try.
Falling behind to a Sione Vailanu try, Ulster grew into the contest and on the half hour mark, flanker Harry Sheridan celebrated his first ever senior try in just his third appearance.
It was no more than the visitors deserved as they spent much of the first half camped in the Glasgow 22, but some stout defending kept the visitors at bay.
“I’m disappointed as we had opportunities in the first 20 minutes to score points and we didn’t take them,” continued McFarland.
After being held up on the Glasgow line on one occasion, Ulster lost two attacking lineouts and just when they thought they got their maul going, up stepped the Glasgow defence to disrupt that as well.
“You got to finish those off. Again, we got our maul going but we didn’t finish off. You got to score points. Glasgow held us out there well. It was 8-5 at half-time and really it should’ve been 15-5 to us given the opportunities we had to score.”
Instead, Ulster had to settle for a Nathan Doak penalty on the stroke of half-time for a deserving three-point lead.
But the second half was all one-way traffic and Glasgow’s greater strength in depth proved decisive as they stretched their unbeaten run to 10 games.
But a late Ulster rally presented the opportunity for three points which Cooney duly accepted.
“The lads did well there. The maul they drive at the end was fantastic. We could have really done with that in the first half,” quipped McFarland on that final score. It’s a score that could prove vital come the end of the season.
Ulster now must pick themselves up for next week's trip to South Africa to face the Natal Sharks.
“We will face that head on. Trips to Durban at this time of the year are very difficult, and the heat and the travel. But it’s got to be done and we have to pick some points up.”
