John Cooney caps Ulster’s brilliant fightback against Edinburgh

[team1]Ulster[/team1][score1]30[/score1][team2]Edinburgh[/team2][score2]29[/score2][/score]

By Jim Stokes

Ulster pulled off a magnificent comeback as scrum-half John Cooney was hero for the second week in succession, landing landed an injury-time penalty to secure an unlikely victory over an Edinburgh side who ran out of steam in the final quarter of an unbelievable contest at the Kingspan Stadium last night.

Ulster looked to be heading for defeat when they were being trounced by a fired-up Scottish outfit at 23-6 early in the second half. Destroyed at the breakdown in the first half, with inaccuracy behind the scrum along with handling error. Ulster may now top Conference B, but there will be questions to be asked about that dreadful first period where physicality was at a premium.

Edinburgh had obviously done their work after viewing Ulster’s victory last week, as their pack completely dominated all over the park.

Then, amazingly the forward cavalry arrived from over the hill, and gradually they gnawed away at that deficit and tries from Will Addison and Cooney saw Ulster edge ahead in the 67th minute, with the Ireland scrum-half doing the needful at the death for a contribution of 20 points.

Ulster certainly showed their soft side in the opening exchanges. Edinburgh were first out of the traps with their forwards dominating the ruck, and a couple of early Simon Hickey penalties for Ulster indiscretions at the breakdown.

Even worse before the second quarter had ticked away when feeble tackling during Edinburgh’s approach play allowed left wing Tom Brown to walk in for the first try of the game after a long-floated pass by Henry Pyrgos. Ulster were 13-0 in arrears in as many minutes, and getting nowhere in attack.

Although Cooney got Ulster on the scoreboard with a penalty in the 20th minute, another breakdown penalty allowed Hickey to keep Edinburgh in the driving seat. Ulster did begin to fizz a little in the second quarter but not a lot.

One thought that Ulster needed to score the first point on the restart, but while they should have after some superb approach play, they presented Edinburgh with a turn-over in their own ‘22’ and smart passing although replacement James Johnstone to scoot home. At 23-6 down, it was into the trenches for Ulster.

But boy, did they dig themselves out. Ulster finally scored their first try of this season’s competition when the lively Addison finally broke through a struggling Edinburgh rearguard. That further allowed Ulster to open up the throttle, and Cooney fired through in the 61st minute, and then brilliant play by Gilroy saw him sprint in.

Scorers for Ulster: (Cooney try, 3 pens, 3 cons; Addison, Gilroy tries)

Scorers for Edinburgh: (Hickey 4 pens, 2 cons; Brown, Johnstone tries)

ULSTER: W Addison; C Gilroy, D Cave, S McCloskey, H Speight; B Burns, J Cooney;A Warwick (O’Sullivan, 50), R Herring (capt), R Kane (Herbst, 50) , K Treadwell (O’Connor, 60), I Henderson, M Coetzee (Reidy, 50), J Murphy, N Timoney.

EDINBURGH: B Kinghorn, D Fife, M Bennett (Johnstone, 19), M Scott, T Brown; S Hickey,H Pyrgos (Kennedy, 74); P Schoeman (Dell, 60), S McInally (Ford, 69), WP Nel (McCallum, 55), B Toolis (Fraser, 56), G Gilchrist, L Hamilton, J Ritchie, V Mata (Crosbie, 40).

Ref: Stuart Berry (SARU).