Ulster make it 3 from 3 and their best start to a season in five yearsUlster's one man show
Friday night was all about debutant Ruan Pienaar. With 43 springbok caps and an attractive contract in his back pocket, all eyes were on the 26 year old scrum half/ fly half/ full back. By scoring all 19 points, Pienaar certainly made a good first impression at the home of Ulster rugby.
Glasgow were first out of the blocks and after a period of sustained pressure were justly rewarded with 3 points from the boot of Duncan Weir. Ulster found themselves further behind when a speculative cross field kick from Weir slipped out of the hands of Andrew Trimble, allowing winger van der Merwe to sprint clear and score in the corner despite the despairing dive of Robbie Diack.
Glasgow’s try seemed to spark Ulster into life and two quick penalties by Ulster new boy Pienaar reduced the deficit to only 2 points.
Ulster continued to apply pressure and following storming bursts from Danielli and the increasingly impressive Court, Ulster found themselves back at the Glasgow 22. The ball was spun wide and when Trimble put a deft chip behind the Warrior’s defence, all the covering Glasgow scrum half could do was slide the ball into touch. From the subsequent 5 metre lineout, Best controlled the rolling maul before making a half break and popping the ball to Pienaar who darted over from close quarter. From the touchline, the Ulster debutant fly half slotted the extras to give Ulster a 13-8 lead.
Weir reduced Ulster lead on the half hour mark when Ulster strayed offside. With the clock ticking towards half time, more sustained pressure from the visiting pack gave the impressive Weir the opportunity to give his side a deserved 14-13 lead at the break.
Pienaar put Ulster back in the lead with a 44th-minute penalty which bounced in off the crossbar, but that was cancelled out five minutes later by Weir who put the Warriors back in front with a stunning penalty from within his own half
However, it was fly half Pienaar that was to have the final say. Sustained pressure from the Ulster pack should probably have led to a yellow card but the Ravenhill crowd made do with a straightforward penalty kick from Man of the Match Pienaaar, to give a final score of Ulster 19 Glasgow 17.
Overall, it was disappointing performance from the home side. Whilst the pack appear to be gelling nicely, securing set piece ball and making the hard yards, the backline seem to lack ideas and are missing the killer instinct required to make these kinds of games safe. With injuries to Niall O’Connor and Jamie Smith, further changes are likely to be made to the backline for next weekend.
Ulster remain unbeaten in the Magners league and entertain Italian side, Aironi in their first Heineken cup game next weekend. Let’s hope Ruan Pienaar can continue on from where he left off on Friday night.
Article by Des Morrow
Bank of Ireland man of the match, Ruan Pienaar:
"There were some good things tonight and there some things which were not so good,"
"It was important to get that win going into Europe which is a top class competition and something I am certainly excited about having had a great reception at Ravenhill tonight."
Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin:
"We knew it was going to be very competitive and the match turned out to be very tight, Glasgow pushed us hard.
"We are happy with the result but we still have a fair bit to go in terms of performance as we are making too many basic errors.
"We need to hold onto the ball and have to push away from sides when we get our noses in front.
"It's good to get the results but we want to play quality rugby - maybe we are trying too hard to play quality rugby."
Ulster: Ulster: J Smith; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, S Danielli; N O'Connor, R Pienaar; B Young, R Best (cpt), T Court, J Muller, D Tuohy, P Wannenburg, C Henry, R Diack.
Replacements: P McAllister for Young (74), T Barker for Tuohy (49), I Whitten for O'Connor (66).
Not used: N Brady, A Whitten, W Faloon, P Marshall, D McIlwaine.
Glasgow: B Stortoni; DTH van der Merwe, M Evans, G Morrison, F Aramburu; D Weir, C Gregor; J Welsh, F Thomson, M Low, T Ryder, R Gray, R Harley, J Barclay (cpt), R Vernon.
Replacements: P MacArthur for Thomson (59), R Grant for Welsh (74), E Kalman for Low (71), A Muldowney for Ryder (71), C Forrester for Vernon (72), Jackson for Weir (71).
Not used: H Pyrgos, R Dewey.
