Ulster storm a turbulent win
Waking up today and reflecting on the match last night, a rare visit to Ravenhill given the fixture list in the second half of the season, I wondered which of the games I should be writing about. The first thirty to thirty-five minutes where a fresh youthful Ulster dominated the Warriors scoring two superb unanswered tries, the fifteen minutes either side of half-time where the heavens opened and it looked like a re-run of the Llanelli or Harlequins games, or the final thirty minutes when Ulster kept Glasgow cooped up in their own half of the field and while they kept Glasgow off the scoreboard were also denied any further points themselves to miss out on a potential bonus point win.
With Paul Steinmetz and Timoci Nagusa unavailable through injury and Paddy Wallace and Stephen Ferris held back due to their involvement as starters in Ireland’s six nations campaign the team was a mix of youth and experience especially in the back row and the centres.
Receiving the kick-off into the wind in the first half Ulster showed their intent by immediately forcing their way up the terrace side to take the ball back into Glasgow’s half. Not content with that Humphreys combined with Simon Danielli to breach the Galsgow defence and then release Darren Cave through to touch down under the posts for an easily converted seven point try. Ulster looked like a team on a mission and even though Glasgow followed the Ulster try with a concerted spell of possession Ulster’s defence held firm and never looked like conceding a score.
Eventually it fell to Dan Parks to try to put his team on the score board following an Ulster infringement. But Parks’ radar was off and his kick was pushed wide of the posts. Ulster continued to dominate possession and stretch the Glasgow defence.
With Nigel Owens being extremely fussy around the breakdown both teams were best advised to be on their best behaviour. First Ryan Caldwell was penalised and giver an stiff talking to for playing the ball on the ground then it was Glasgow’s turn, and this time Kevin Tkachuk was on the wrong end of Owens’ wrath receiving a Yellow Card for his trouble and spending ten minutes in the bin.
With their defence down to 14 men Glasgow could no longer contain the exuberance of Ulster and Simon Danielli was again in the midst of the action this time setting Andrew Trimble up for a blistering run to touch down close to the right touchline. Humpreys was unable to make the tricky conversion into the wind but Ulster had a very handy 12 point lead.
As the wind stiffened and the rain started to come down Parks was offered another show at goal from 45 metres out, but he still couldn’t find his range and this one also drifted wide of the posts. To compound his troubles with the boot he also kicked an attempted touch-finder penalty out over the dead-ball line to hand possession back to Ulster with a scrum put-in back in the Glasgow half. As the clock would down the weather continued to deteriorate until it began to resemble the Harlequins game from earlier in the season..
This all seemed to be in Ulster’s favour as the thought of playing into the driving wind and rain in the second half must have been one that Glasgow were dreading. To be honest some of the crowd must have thought so too as the prom, terrace and Yellowtom Stand were all decidedly emptier as the less hardy supporters chose to spend the rest of the match in the bars.
As the Second half kicked off it was getting close to Llanelli 2007 proportions with the wind howling down the ground and the rain coming down in bucketfuls. Advantage was definitely with the home team playing with the wind at their backs. Again they immediately showed their intent to keep Glasgow pinned back and contained within their own half. Galsgow had no choice but to keep possession and fight for every inch of ground but as soon as they made it into Ulster’s half they were pinged for a ruck infringement and Humphreys elected for a long shot at goal assisted by the strong wind. But it was just wide of the posts. Still it was no loss as Glasgow had to drop out into a strong wind. And again they were struggling to crawl out of their half.
Nigel Owens still wasn’t happy with the performance at the breakdown though and this time it was Ulster’s Justin Fitzpatrick who was carded. However Ulster still had the tactics just right and one of the best opportunities of the half came when Ryan Caldwell charged down a rare Glasgow clearance attempt, hacked-on and was just beaten in the chase by the Glasgow defence pushing the ball into touch. With Glasgow unable to make it out of their half and Ulster unable to breach the Glasgow defence again it seemed that the game was ending in stale-mate. The wind and rain did ease back to manageable proportions about 15 minutes into the half but the game never re-ignited.
Matt Williams and Sean Lineen both threw on their replacements but neither side seemed to benefit from the new blood and the clock wound down to a disappointing but very welcome 12-0 home win.
Throughout the game there were a number of notable performances:-
Simon Danielli, announced at the ground as MOTM was instrumental in setting up both tries and was obviously coming back into form.
Darren Cave finished his try well and more importantly tackled like a demon making important tackle after important tackle as Ulster’s midfield shut the Glasgow attack down.
Ian Whitten was also impressive, linking well tackling well and being at the forefront of on of the best attacking opportunities of the second half as he broke through Scottish tackles to make about 30 metres deep into Glasgow territory.
Matt McCullough, Setanta’s MOTM, justified his selection as a back-rower by providing a valuable option at the line-out and tackling like a demon off the back of the scrum.
Overall a pleasing result though I think a bonus-point win was a real possibility given the way in which we played in the first half. The second period was spent almost entirely in Glasgow’s half of the field and we should have been able to score twice more given our dominance in the first. Still we are up to sixth in the table developing a bit more squad depth in the process.
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Ulster: Clinton Schifcofske, Andrew Trimble, Darren Cave, Ian Whitten, Simon Danielli, Ian Humphreys, Isaac Boss, Justin Fitzpatrick, Rory Best (Capt), Brendon Botha, Ryan Caldwell, Ed O'Donoghue, Matt McCullough, David Pollock, Chris Henry. Replacements: Nigel Brady, Tom Court, Carlo Del Fava, Kieron Dawson, Cillian Willis, Niall O'Connor, Mark McCrea
Glasgow: Bernardo Stortoni, Hefin O'Hare, Jose Maria Nunez Piossek, Ruaridh Jackson, Chris Kinloch, Dan Parks (capt), Mark McMillan, Kevin Tkachuk, Fergus Thomson, Moray Low, Dan Turner, Opeta Palepoi, Calum Forrester, Kelly Brown, Johnnie Beattie. Replacements: Eric Milligan, Ed Kalman, Tim Barker, Stevie Swindall, Richie Gray, Peter Jericevich, Peter Horne
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Touch judges: John Carvill (Ireland), Paul Haycock (Ireland)
Television match official: Peter Ferguson (Ireland)
