Unlucky Ulster go down to late Laney penalty

Ulster 18, Edinburgh 19

Laney, who had earlier fluffed his lines with two easy penalties going astray, rifled over the winning kick with a minute of normal time remaining to give Edinburgh the lead for the first time and ultimate victory.

It was rough justice for Ulster’s stand-in fly-half Paul Wallace who had kept his side’s noses in front for all but 79 minutes of the game.

Standing in for David Humphreys, Wallace had a 100% kicking success with six well-executed penalties. But in the end it was to no avail.

Ulster had dominated for long periods, but failed to breach a tight Edinburgh defence. It will be no consolation that Ulster managed to pick up a point from their efforts as Edinburgh kept their Pool A record intact.

Laney was spot on when Ulster lock Mark Blair was penalised, and some back chat gave the Scotland full-back a more comfortable chance to win the game for his side.

It was a weakened Ulster side who lost Jeremy Davidson before kick-off and had to drag Paddy Johns out of retirement to sit on the bench.

However, they gave as good as they got out of touch and won more than their fair share of possession around the park. The nearest they came to scoring was when winger Sheldon Coulter was held up over the line just after the restart. Ulster were 9-0 ahead after 27 minutes of hard graft with Wallace doing the needful. Edinburgh pressure finally told on the run-up to the break when Laney danced around the defence for the only try of the game which he converted himself.

Wallace and Laney then swapped penalties in first-half injury-time to leave Ulster 12-10 ahead after the break.

Wallace landed two more penalties as Ulster forced the pace without finding a way through the Edinburgh defence.

But a Duncan Hodge drop goal brought the Scottish boys to with two points, and then came that heartbreak when Laney stole victory from under Ulster’s noses.

ULSTER: B Cunningham; S Coulter; J Bell, capt, R Constable, T Howe;P Wallace, N Doak; R Kempson, M Sexton, S Best, T McWhirter, M Blair, W Brosnihan. N Mc Scorers: T: P: Wallace (6).

EDINBURGH: B Laney, D Lee, M Di Rollo, A Dickson, C Paterson, D Hodge, M Blair, A Jacobsen, C Di Ciacca, C Smith, N Hines, S Murray, T Blackadder, capt, S Taylor, M Leslie. Replacements: D Hall for Di Ciaca (63), J Brannigan for Smith (63), G Perrett for Hines (71), S Cross for Leslie (74), T Philip for Dickson (74), C Joiner for Di Rollo (21).

Scorers: T: Laney; P: Laney (3); DG: Hodge; C: Laney;Referee: H Watkins (WRU).