Ambitious Ulster warming to the task

Ulster 29 Edinburgh 21:ULSTER MOVED top of the Magners League after registering their third successive win of the campaign in a pulsating encounter at Ravenhill which saw the home side score three tries courtesy of the returning Andrew Trimble, Ian Whitten and Darren Cave.

Ulster had the perfect start when O’Connor cross-kicked to Trimble on the left wing and the ball eluded Mark Robertson to fall for the Ireland winger who then shrugged off a fairly feeble half tackle from Robertson and raced clear for the line.

O’Connor missed the tricky conversion but then Edinburgh hit back, four minutes later, after Ulster strayed offside at a ruck under their posts. Chris Paterson obliged with the three pointer.

O’Connor was then wide with a long-range penalty before successfully bisecting the posts after Netani Talei was wrapped up and failed to release.

Always looking urgent, Ulster pushed on and after the impressive Stephen Ferris nailed Tim Visser in a huge tackle which resulted in a penalty to Ulster, O’Connor put the ball in the corner and the home side suddenly cranked up the gears from the resulting lineout.

After surging up the middle with Paul Marshall making ground near Edinburgh’s posts, Ferris carried twice before O’Connor’s skip pass put centre Ian Whitten over in the right corner, a score which proved too difficult for O’Connor to convert.

But Ulster’s 13-3 lead was again short-lived as, from the restart, Edinburgh reclaimed the ball and after Mike Blair put in a useful touch kick, the visitors won a lineout turnover and laid siege to Ulster’s line.

The end result was Paterson’s second penalty which really should have resulted in a third success right at the end of the half but the Scotland international was unusually wide with a fairly straight-forward attempt.

Ulster punished Paterson’s miss only two minutes after the restart to put 10 points between the sides with O’Connor’s second penalty.

However, yet again, Ulster quickly conceded and after Trimble received a fairly ambitious pass from another O’Connor cross-kick, the ball was worked to Tim Visser and the winger surged down the left and beat three tackles to score.

Paterson’s conversion reduced Ulster’s lead to three points but then all Edinburgh’s good work was undone when flanker Scott Newlands was sent to the bin for killing the ball and O’Connor put Ulster 19-13 in front.

But any hope of Ulster making the extra man pay were immediately undone as Chris Henry was pinged for coming in from the side and Phil Godman slotted the penalty to again narrow Ulster’s lead to three points.

Ulster’s response was an O’Connor drop goal to keep them six points to the good. The lead could have been extended but a 67th minute penalty from the outhalf floated wide of the posts.

Still, there was more in the tank from Ulster and after some good work taking the ball through the phases, centre Darren Cave broke through and made the line. O’Connor added the conversion to put Ulster 29-16 in front.

Once more, though, they quickly conceded and Edinburgh centre Ben Cairns smashed through Jamie Smith’s tackle for an unconverted score to put eight points between them at the finish.

ULSTER: J Smith; P Emerick, D Cave, I Whitten, A Trimble; N O’Connor, P Marshall: B Young, A Kyriacou, T Court, J Muller (Capt), R Caldwell, S Ferris, C Henry, R Diack Replacements: R Best, P McAllister, BJ Botha, T Barker, P Wannenburg, I Porter, I Humphreys, D McIlwaine. Replacements: B Young rep by BJ Botha, A Kyriacou rep by R Best and R Diack rep by P Wannenburg (all 50 mins).

EDINBURGH: C Paterson; M Robertson, B Cairns, A Grove, T Visser, P Godman, M Blair, A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, S MacLeod, C Hamilton, S Newlands, R Grant (Capt), N Talei Replacements: A Kelly, K Traynor, J Gilding, S McInally, D Denton, G Laidlaw, D Blair, J Houston. Replacements: C Paterson rep by J Houston (41mins), N Talei rep by S McInally (54 mins). Yellow cards: S Newlands (49 mins).

Referee: A Falzone (FIR).