Ulster battle for win against Borders

Ulster 17 The Borders 13

Ulster were made to battle far harder than they had anticipated to secure their eighth Celtic League win against bottom side The Borders in a bruising encounter at Ravenhill.

The home side, bidding to finish above Connacht to avoid any threat to their Heineken Cup place for next season, secured the result with tries from skipper Andy Ward and former Borders player Campbell Feather, both converted by centre Paul Steinmetz.

Ulster led 10-6 at the break but a great second quarter from the visitors saw Scotland international Chris Cusiter, sin-binned in the opening 40 minutes, grab a converted try to give Borders a 13-10 lead on the hour mark.

However, Ulster proved just too strong and Feather’s 64th-minute try, when he was driven over the line from a lineout, secured the win that keeps Ulster on course for a top-eight finish which will see them qualify for the Celtic Cup.

The visitors drew first blood after two minutes when centre Charlie Hore kicked a penalty which David Humphreys cancelled out 14 minutes later after Cusiter was sin-binned for interfering with the ball as Ulster pressed under the visitors’ posts.

However, Humphreys, who had a poor night with the boot, missed two further penalty attempts as Ulster took the game to 14-man Borders.

His second miss came in the wake of the 25th-minute binning of Bruce Douglas, briefly leaving Borders down to 13 men.

But Borders survived and with Cusiter back, Alistair Warnock slotted a 40-metre drop goal to give them a 6-3 lead after 34 minutes.

This stung Ulster into action and a period of sustained pressure saw Humphreys cross-kick for Tommy Bowe before Steinmetz cross-kicked to the other side of the field, allowing skipper Ward to get the injury-time touchdown.

Steinmetz then superbly converted to give Ulster a 10-6 lead at the break and despite Borders’ spirited comeback the home side denied the visitors a first ever away victory in the league.