Another great opportunity squandered

Ulster run out the winners but despite going two converted tries down in the opening 20 minutes a resurgent Dragons made Ulster fight all the way for their win and in the end they were the team with pride intact having denied Ulster what looked like a certain 4-try bonus and secured a losing bonus point in the process.

Kicking off towards the beer tent (always a bad sign in my book as I prefer it when the lads are playing towards the beer tent in the second half) Ulster began with great gusto showing lots of invention of the kind that has been strangely absent since the first half against Toulouse in October.

The initial exchanges resulted in a penalty to the Dragons for Ulster not binding at the scrum but the Dragons could make nothing of it and Ulster continued to pile on the pressure.  On six minutes Ulster were awarded a penalty of their own around the half-way line. Ulster took the penalty quickly with Stephen Ferris barging forward bursting through the tacklers to offload to Isaac Boss who completed the break to score  in the right corner with Humph converting to make the score 7-0 to Ulster.

Minutes later Neil Best turned over the ball on the half way line and Paddy Wallace took the ball on the blind side and unloaded to Andy Trimble who stepped on the gas to beat the covering defender and then with a cheeky change of direction accelerated away to touch down for the try of the night under the posts. Humph took the easy conversion to leave Ulster ahead by 14 points to nil.

Little did we know it but far from this being the opening of the floodgates this was to be the last of Ulster’s scores for the night. Minutes later Ulster won another penalty inside the Dragon’s half and Humph elected to go for the posts. As he struck the ball the lack of cheer from the terrace betrayed the fact that this one was not to be.

As the Dragons began to grow in confidence a break saw them seriously pressure the Ulster line. A fine chip through by Gareth Wyatt left him with only Hugo to beat for an easy score. Somehow he managed to turn inside and stumble with the line beckoning and turn a certain scoring opportunity into a defensive scramble and Ulster cleared their lines.

As half time approached the Dragons made what felt like their first concerted assault on the Ulster line, with Ulster seriously rocked they pushed the ball into touch on the terrace side. From the ensuing Line-out the Dragons pressed home their advantage for Aled Brew to dot down under the posts for an easily converted try.

This was to be the last score of the game. The teams retreated into the dressing rooms for half-time with the crowd rocked but still expecting an Ulster rout.

At the start of the second half Ulster came out with all guns blazing and they pressed the Dragons line but the defence held firm and their best efforts were repulsed. As the game progressed and the replacements were thrown into the fray by both sides it became obvious that the Dragons had the measure of Ulster and that a 5-pointer was not on the cards. Ulster spent the final 20 minutes defending their lines against serious dragon pressure and in the end while they may feel this was a bonus point that went begging they were should also be happy that they kept the dragons out and didn’t throw away a vital home win in the fight for the league title.

In the end I’m left not knowing what to feel:-

Isaac was slow to put in at every scrum – looking for the ref to penalise the Dragons for an early drive but Changeleng was not having any of it and in the end it cost us far more than it gained. He was not at all happy when he was finally replaced by Naz for the end of the game.

Stephen Ferris was a crunching No 8. Roger Wilson who despite being listed as injured was substituted on at 7 as replacement for Kieron Dawson may well see this as the moment he ceded his No 8 berth to the young turk..

The penetration, which had been sadly lacking since the Toulouse game at home in October was back. But only briefly. We lacked the clinical finishing that was needed to turn this into a serious 5-pojnt victory and I can’t help but wonder if this was the night we lost out ML crown.

Neil Best was his old brilliant self hard hitting and winning turnovers single-handed he has surely reminded Eddie O’Sullivan that he deserves to start for Ireland against England next week. He was the ML man of the match though to my mind that accolade belonged to Stephen Ferris.

In the end this was a well deserved home win. There were strong performances by many, but the Dragons would be justified in feeling they deserved a draw. On the positive side Our Line-outs were excellent and our scrums strong. On the negative we were out mauled by the dragons at every opportunity.

If Ulster are to go on to retain their ML crown they bust build from here to the end of the season. One backward step will spell the end.

Ulster
15 - Bryn Cunningham ; 14 - Tommy Bowe; 13 - Paul Steinmetz; 12 - Paddy Wallace; 11 - Andrew Trimble; 10 - David Humphreys; 9 - Isaac Boss; 1 - Justin Fitzpatrick; 2 - Paul Shields; 3 - Simon Best; 4 - Justin Harrison (Captain); 5 - Tim Barker ; 6 -Neil Best; 7 - Kieron Dawson; 8 -Stephen Ferris;

Replacements:
16 - Stuart Philpott; 17 - Bryan Young; 18 - Ryan Caldwell 19 - Roger Wilson / Sam Harding; 20 - Kieran Campbell; 21 - Kevin Maggs; 22 - Paul McKenzie

Dragons
15. Aled Thomas, 14. Gareth Wyatt, 13. Paul Emerick, 12. Phil Dolman, 11. Aled Brew, 10. Ceri Sweeney, 9. Gareth Cooper, 1. Adam Black, 2. Ben Daly, 3. Jamie Corsi, 4. Luke Charteris, 5. Peter Sidoli, 6. Andrew Hall, 7. Jamie Ringer, 8. Michael Owen (c)

Replacements
16. Richard Wilkes, 17. Gethin Robinson, 18. Colin Charvis, 19. Nic Fitisemanu, 20. Richard Fussell, 21. Mike Hercus, 22. Alex Walker

Referee: David Changleng (SRU).