Ulster held on to win a nervy encounter in this Magners League fixture on Saturday evening at a packed Ravenhill.
Ulster needed a win to get their league campaign back on track and they certainly seemed edgy as they allowed Munster to come on to them in the opening encounters. Nerves were certainly in evidence as Ulster miss fielded the opening kick off allowing the visitors to push hard for an opening try.
There were plenty of handling errors from both sides and Ulster managed to repel the attacks, eventually breaking up field to take a fortunate lead with a Humphreys penalty. This failed to settle the Ulstermen and further chaos at the re-start let Munster set up camp close to the Ulster line. Yet again Ulster managed to repel the attacks and with the scrum starting to dominate they managed to work their way up field.
If Ulster have been guilty of squandering chances in the last couple of games they certainly made the most of the limited opportunities that came their way in this encounter and sprinted into a 10 – 0 lead after a converted Danielli try following a charge down on Warwick by Wallace.
Despite further chaos at the re-start Ulster managed to work another opening after a well timed run by Trimble. The Coleraine man cut inside De Villiers and sent Danielli clear for his second try in a matter of minutes and Ulster looked very comfortable with their 15 – 0 lead.
Somewhat ironically Ulster managed to field the last re-start they were to face but it was Munster that finished the first half stronger with a, somewhat fortuitous, try by De Villiers and a Warwick penalty bringing the halftime score to 15 – 10.
Ulster upped their game in the second half and set about systematically destroying the forward effort of the visitors. Court completely and utterly destroyed the severely overrated Buckley in the scrum and with Brady, Botha and then Kyriacou all chipping in to sap the strength and stamina from their opponents the young Munster pack struggled to find a finger hold back into the game.
The final indignity came when Ulster drove the Munster pack off the ball and with the colossal Ferris driving the biggest Munster forwards back dozens of yards at every encounter it appeared to me that Ulster had a chance to kick on and stretch their advantage.
Nerves, or maybe prudence, got the better of the management and they brought on O’Connor in place of Humphreys to close out the game, which he did reasonably comfortably. Still not 100% behind this decision but I suppose that chances of getting a further two tries was fairly slim and the chances of Munster snatching a win from an Ulster mistake were considerably higher. Safety first was undoubtedly the best call, but hey, where’s the fun in that?
You can view match day pictures from Rugby Picture here.
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2 Responses to “Ulster 15 Munster 10”
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A bonus point win would have been nice, but there was always the chance that the Munstermen would sneek over for a score or 2, and sometimes you gotta win ugly – Munster do it all the time and I think that on Sat night we learned how to win ugly. Well done to the management team and the players for grinding out a victory. Our defence was superb and the forwards efforts throughout the game were relished by the home crowd. Mr Buckley left the field a ‘broken and dejected man’ – Tom Court played a blinder.
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Alan Lewis cried off from officiating at Ravenhill AGAIN. What is his problem?
Phillips is a poor AIL referee and spoiled a good game. How he failed to spot the 2 yard knock on which lead to the Munster score is beyond me.
I could rant on about poor referees this week again but Brendan Venter beat me to it.
The match was a bonus point lost.
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