URC: Edinburgh 19-40 Ulster - Scots throw away lead for heavy home defeat

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Ulster enter the bout 6th in the URC table, with Edinburgh pushing for a knockout spot in 12th. A victory would put the visitors into the top 4, and Edinburgh in the top 10. It would be a big day for Edinburgh’s Dylan Richardson, who made his first start for Edinburgh, and for Tom McAllister, making his senior debut for Ulster.

After a five-minute delay, the game kicked off, and the teams were clearly raring to go. A break from Edinburgh, 8 Ben Muncaster was halted by an illegal effort from Ulster, and 11 Zac Ward was shown an immediate yellow card for cynical play to wrap up the first minute.

An effort from Liam McConell was held up seconds after, and Ulster’s 9 David Shanahan was taken off for an HIA. Ulster were taking a battering defending Edinburgh in these opening phases, and it couldn’t continue. Ulster were fortunate to force a penalty and then hold up another attempt, doing well to abate the seemingly inevitable Edinburgh score. However, the Inevitable was, well, inevitable, and Edinburgh 10 Ross Thompson split the Ulster defense and converted to open the evening's scoring.

Ulster were not disheartened, quickly forcing Edinburgh to defend their own 22 after the restart. An Ulster lineout began some impressive phase play along the home side’s try line, with strong carries and hits coming in on either side of the tackles. Ulster were rewarded when lock Charlie Irvine crashed through, with the boot of Murphy equalizing the score just before their yellow card came to an end.

One of the two fullbacks on the pitch wearing a scrum cap – Edinburgh’s Harry Paterson – was the one to end the scoring drought that had lasted the previous ten minutes. Both sides had had tasty efforts, but none had had the extra gusto to result in a score until an Edinburgh lineout in Ulster's 22. It looked as if the home forwards would get the job done, but it took some quick hands getting the ball out wide to Paterson for the ball to be grounded over the line.

After another ten-minute drought, Edinburgh brought the tidal wave once again into Ulster’s 22 with an impressive break from Hooker Boan Venter, who squirreled the ball out of the ruck and thundered through the defensive line. Although he was brought down, Edinburgh were quick to capitalise, and some secure hands saw Wes Goosen score. This was once again answered by an Ulster score shortly after, replacement 9 Conor McKee showed some flair and fought off three Edinburgh defenders while making 20 metres, eventually offloading to back row Juarno Augustus, who grounded the ball.

Ulster won a line-out on the halfway mark moments before the clock ticked to 40, but the ball carrier was taken into touch on the far side to end the half, 19-14.

The second half began much akin to the first - high intensity, and a sin bin. Edinburgh once again took the attacking role upon themselves and threatened another early score. While Ulster prevented conceding in the first five minutes, they once again gave away a cynical penalty, and number 4, Harry Sheridan, was shown a yellow card by Federico Vedevelli. Ulster were once again not disheartened, winning back possession and pushing play out of their 22 and towards the halfway line.

Ulster were not done there; a set-piece practice play put the ball in the hands of fullback Michael Lowry, who did well to break through a tackle. The ball flew into the hands of early yellow card recipient Ward before falling into replacement Jake Flannery’s hands, who placed it down in the corner. An unsuccessful conversion saw the points equaled on 19 with 30 minutes to play. As play resumed, a bunker review upgraded Sheridan’s yellow to a 20-minute red.

Ulster then took the lead for the first time in this cold evening battle, despite being a man down. Their attack facing the Murrayfield stand seemed inevitable, just as Edinburgh’s did in the opening minutes. Ulster’s forwards worked through many phases, tiring the Edinburgh defense. Eventually, replacement Scott Wilson was the one to barrel over and take the lead.

On the restart, freshly on the pitch, Harri Morris received an immediate yellow for off-field review due to an incredibly unsafe tackle of the Ulster player in the air. It felt without a doubt that it would be upgraded to a 20-minute red card, and only moments later, it was confirmed. With a try and a man, the difference with 15 minutes to play, Edinburgh had their work cut out for them to bring victory back within their grasp.

This would be made even harder as Ulster put another 7 on the scoreboard with another strong break into Edinburgh’s 22. Playing along the home side's try line, the forwards looked to reward themselves with another try-by-phase. The immediate efforts were defended, so Ulster switched it over to the hands of McKee, who darted over the line.

The hill quickly became a mountain for Edinburgh as Ulster scored yet another in a similar way. Like a hot knife through butter, Ulster found themselves in Edinburgh’s 22 yet again, and in a similar move to the previous two, backup center Ben Carson pierced the defense to claim Ulster's fifth try of the evening amid Edinburgh’s capitulation.

The final whistle was blown as Ulster looked to secure another, but Edinburgh’s defence proved valiant until the bitter end. Finishing as they started by holding up the attempt. Ulster will be pleased they were able to walk away with a dominant bonus point performance despite thirty minutes of sin bin time, and Edinburgh will be frustrated they couldn’t pounce given the same circumstances.

Edinburgh could breathe a slight sigh of relief however as the other postponed fixture, Connacht v Scarlets finished with a Scarlets loss, leaving Edinburgh twelfth in the URC table.

“We certainly put ourselves in a position to win the game” – Edinburgh Head Coach Sean Everitt said, “Not happy with that performance in the second half, we are better than that, we take pride in our defence and defence is part of our character and we definitely need to fix that before we go to South Africa.”

TRIES: 3 (Thompson 4’, Paterson 21’, Goosen 30’)

CONVERSIONS: 2 (Thompson 5’, 22’)

PENALTIES: 0

DROP GOALS: 0

YELLOW CARDS: 1 (Morris 64’)

RED CARDS: 0

15. Harry Paterson 14. Malielili Satala 13. Piers O’Conor 12. Mosese Tuipulotu 11. Wes Goosen 10. Ross Thompson 9. Ben Vellacott 1. Boan Venter 2. Dylan Richardson 3. Angus Williams 4. Marshall Sykes 5. Glen Young 6. Liam McConnell 7. Connor Boyle 8. Ben Muncaster

Replacements: 16. Harri Morris 17. James Whitcombe 18. Ollie Blyth-Lafferty 19. Callum Hunter-Hill 20. Tom Curry 21. Charlie Shiel 22. Cammy Scott 23. Jack Brown

TRIES: 3 (Irvine 9’, Augustus 35’, Flannery 51’, Wilson 61’, McKee 69’, Carson 73’)

CONVERSIONS: 1 (Murphy 10’, 36’, 62’, 70’, 73)

PENALTIES: 0

DROP GOALS: 0

YELLOW CARDS: 2 (Ward 1’)

RED CARDS: 1 (Sheridan 46’)

15. Michael Lowry 14. Werner Kok 13. Jumes Hume 12. Jude Postlethwaite 11. Zac Ward 10. Jack Murphy 9. David Shanahan 1. Angus Bell 2. Rob Herring (c) 3. Tom McAllister 4. Harry Sheridan 5. Charlie Irvine 6. Cormac Izuchukwu 7. Bryn Ward 8. Juarno Augustus

Replacements: 16. James Mccormick 17. Sam Crean 18. Scott Wilson 19. Joe Hopes 20. David McCann 21. Conor Mckee 22. Jake Flannery 23. Ben Carson