Controlled Ulster win to keep cup dreams alive

ULSTER came out of cold storage to strangle the life out of Edinburgh and take their outside chances of reaching the knockout stages a step further.

Ulster will look to Bath today to do them a favour by lowering the gaudy colours of Stade Francais in Paris.

In dreadful conditions with a wicked wind, the Ulster pack showed magnificent control Apart from one or two lapses, Brian McLaughlin’s side dominated the game with tries from Darren Cave and man-of-the match Isaac Boss adding gloss.

Ulster kept it tight early. It wasn’t pretty and helped by referee Christophe Berdos getting frustrated by Edinburgh’s spoiling tactics, in which five penalties were awarded in the opening quarter, Ulster were happy to carry on inching up the field.

However, Edinburgh finally got a break when a lazy Ulster runner allowed Chris Patterson his first touch of the ball as he flicked over the opening score in the 21st minute.

A great 40-metre dash by the revitalised Andrew Trimble got the crowd going as Ulster showed they were not afraid to move the ball. And it was no fluke when Ulster’s handling paid dividends in the 29th minute with some excellent interplay from Trimble, Stephen Ferris and Dan Tuohy before Cave bustled his way over wide out.

Edinburgh, and dead-eye Patterson, jumped on a rare Ulster handling error and subsequent penalty to sweep his side into the lead as his 40-metre penalty bulleted over with the wind.

This seemed to finally spur the visitors on in the run-up to half-time and a neatly threaded grubber kick by wing Jim Thompson into the corner had their tails up.

However, once again, Ulster’s control was majestic as they went into half-time one point down but very much on the front foot.

On the restart, but two thundering tackles by Ferris shuddered Edinburgh. Humphreys then nudged Ulster ahead in the 45th minute when he slotted over a close-in penalty after Edinburgh held on at a ruck.

Ulster were destroying the Edinburgh scrum. And it was from a set piece that allowed Ulster to stretch their lead. First Trimble made ground up the right, and when the ruck was won, and then scrum-half Boss celebrated his 100th appearance by selling a delicious dummy to run in under the posts for Humphreys to add the extras.

A Stephen Ferris yellow card for not rolling away put a different perspective on the game. Edinburgh ran the penalty from the halfway line and the ball was moved right for Thompson to touch down, the try splendidly converted by Paterson.

14-man Ulster were awarded a penalty in the 68th minute with Humphreys’ kick successful.

Replacement Niall O’Connor put the icing on the cake with a penalty with the last kick of the game and denying the visitors a loser’s bonus.

ULSTER: J Smith; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, S Danielli; I Humphreys, I Boss; T Court, N Brady, BJ Botha; D Tuohy, E O’Donoghue; S Ferris, D Pollock, C Henry (capt).

Replacements: A Kyriacou for Brady (60), B Young for Court (60), D Fitzpatrick for Botha (76), R Caldwell for Tuohy (71), TJ Anderson, C Willis for Boss (77), N O’Connor for Humphreys (71), T Nagusa.

EDINBURGH: C Paterson (capt): J Thompson, B Cairns, J Houston, T Visser; P Godman, G Laidlaw; A Jacobsen, R Ford, D Young, S MacLeod, J Hamilton, S Newlands, A MacDonald, R Grant

Replacements: A Kelly for Ford (70), K Traynor for Jackobsen (32), G Cross for Young (40), C Hamilton for MacLeod (70), F McKenzie for MacDonald (73), R Samson for Laidlaw (70), N De Luca for Cairns (50), M Robertson for Visser (50).

Referee: Christophe Berdos (FFR).