Old boy Bowe’s try breaks Ulster hearts

IRELAND wing Tommy Bowe broke the hearts of his former colleagues when he scored the Ospreys’ bonus-point fourth try near the end of a pulsating Magners League clash to deny Ulster a bonus point.

Bowe had been quiet for most of the evening, but he pounced in the 78th minute to leave Ulster trembling for their European future near the foot of the table.

Although Ulster failed yet again on home turf, it was a superb show by Brian McLaughlin’s side, who were not helped by some strange referee decisions.

An encouraging opening period for Ulster brought its reward in the 10th minute when Niall O’Connor slotted over a penalty after BJ Botha made a mess of the Ospreys scrum.

Ospreys charged back four minutes later when they encamped on the Ulster line and when the ball was spun left, Shane Williams was allowed a yard of space to hold off Andrew Trimble’s tackle to touch down in the corner.

Ulster were playing with some continuity and although they had to withstand some bit hits, particularly from Welsh lock Ian Gough, they managed to engineer a penalty for O’Connor to put his side ahead again.

It got even better for the home side in the 24th minute when after a great Trimble turnover deep inside his own territory, backs and forwards combined with some great interplay to allow Simon Danielli to hold off two tackles to score.

Stirred into action, the Ospreys were back in the lead within six minutes, a neat Dan Biggar nudge allowing his back line to charge through, and it was centre James Hook who fended off a challenge by Paddy Wallace to score close to the posts.

Ulster regained the lead again with exhilarating support play which had it roots in a crunching tackle on Hook by Wallace.

With Belfast-born Scottish referee Neil Patterson about to blow for half-time, Ulster kept the ball alive from the turnover and, after numerous passes, it was left to Trimble to barge his way through to score midway out, with O’Connor adding the extras.

The Ospreys looked more earnest at the start of the second period and Biggar got them going with two quick-fire penalties. Then O’Connor, who was making an impact at fly-half, saw an attempted kick charged down by Hook who collected to run in under the posts from 35 metres to push his side out to a 25-18 lead.

O’Connor made up for his error in the 56th and 63rd minutes with two well-struck penalties to make it a one-point game midway through the half.

A yellow card for Gough after he pulled down an Ulster drive in the 67th minute allowed O’Connor to slot over his fifth penalty. However, Ulster’s lead was again shortlived when two Biggar penalties, the second a rather dubious award by referee Patterson, put Ospreys on the front foot again.

With four minutes left, Ulster never gave up, but a very loose pass was booted up field by Adam Jones and it was Bowe who was in second gear to win the race for the touchdown with Biggar converting and leaving Ulster without even a bonus point.

ULSTER: P Wallace; A Trimble, D Cave, I Whitten, S Danielli, N O’Connor, I Boss; B Young, R Best, BJ Botha, E O’Donoghue, D Tuohy, S Ferris, C Henry (capt), R Diack.

Replacements: A Kyriacou for Best (80), T Court for Young 60), R Caldwell, D Pollock, P Marshall for Boss (80) , I Humphreys, N Spence for Wallace (80).

OSPREYS: L Byrne; T Bowe, S Parker, J Hook, S Williams; D Biggar, M Phillips; R Bevington, H Bennett, A Jones, I Gough, J Thomas, J Collins, M Holah, R Jones (capt).

Replacements: E Shervington for Bennett (69), P James for Bevington (56), AW Jones for Thomas (54), F Tiatia for Jones (54), J Nutbrown, A Bishop for Phillips (69), N Walker for Hook (76).

Referee: Neil Patterson (SRU).