Pienaar slots over the winning drop goal. BY: RUGBYPICTURE.CO.UK
Ulster 25 Dragons 23
Ulster were nearly left with red faces on Red Nose day as they struggled to contain a battling Dragons side. Ruan Pienaar saved the day with a last minute drop goal keeping Ulster’s challenge for a top four Magners League finish alive!
In truth the Welsh side probably deserved to win this game having dominated most of the second half but Ulster can take a great deal of comfort in the performance of their youngsters and with the ability of the team to close out yet another close encounter of the Welsh kind!
Ulster started the game well with the youthful backline looking to move the ball at every opportunity. Dungannon’s Conor Gaston particularly impressed looking to the manor born and the youngster grew in confidence as the game went on.
Ulster went ahead after eight minutes when Nevin Spence collected a pass from Luke Marshall and burst through for a try with Pienaar converting for a 7 – 0 lead. Unfortunately Ulster let Dragons in for an easy try after D’Arcy failed to collect a speculative kick through. Tovey failed to convert his score leaving the score 7 – 5.
Luckily enough the Dragons had a miserable night with their kicks and Ulster went further ahead after 25 minutes with Pienaar adding a penalty to put Ulster five in front. Ulster pushed hard for another score before teh break but the Welsh defence held on without too much discomfort.
The Dragons started the second half strongly and bagged two tries in the third quarter with first Evans and then the ever popular Brew crossing. Tovey converted the first and Ulster looked in disarray with the score reading 10 – 17.
However Ulster managed to capitalise on their limited possession and replacement Seymour did well to find the line on the 64th minute after a break from Pedrie Wannenburg.
Pienaar missed the conversion to tie the game and the Dragons opened up a five point lead with a penalty moving the score to 15 -20.
As the clock ticked down Ulster held their nerve and a great break from Gaston put Cave through for a try which Pienaar converted to give Ulster a two point lead and it looked as though Ulster had snatched the game – however there were still a few twists to come.
The Dragons worked their way straight back up field and thought they had won it when Tovey slotted a drop goal with a minute left.
However, the drama continued as Ulster moved the ball to under the posts on the stroke of full time and Pienaar found the composure to send over a drop goal with the last kick off the game to send the home fans home happy!
The win moved Ulster to fourth place in the Magners League but more important was the performance of the youngsters with Patrick Jackson, Conor Gaston, Luke Marshall, Tommy Seymour, Craig Gilroy and Nevin Spence all making strong contributions.
Diack looked to have recovered some of his pre-season form before he was replaced by Wannenburg and Cave and Tuohy slotted in as though they hadn’t been away, with young veteran Darren showing his class for his score.
Ulster: (15-9): Adam D’Arcy; Conor Gaston, Nevin Spence, Luke Marshall, Craig Gilroy; Patrick Jackson, Ruan Pienaar; (1-8): Paddy McAllister, Andi Kyriacou, Declan Fitzpatrick, Johann Muller (capt), Tim Barker, Chris Henry, Willie Faloon, Robbie Diack. (16-23): Nigel Brady, Bryan Young, Jerry Cronin, Dan Tuohy, Pedrie Wannenburg, Paul Marshall, Darren Cave, Tommy Seymour
8 Responses to “Magners League: Ulster Shock – Gilroy doesn’t score!”
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Yes the Dragons could have won if they had kicked their penalties but would it have been deserved ? It wasn’t that the Welsh ref over penalised Ulster it was the infringements that he failed to give against the Dragons which put the pressure on Ulster.
Jackson showed a lot of promise and if he bulks up during the summer could be a regular not to be little Spence’s games at 13 but the back line looked much more fluent when Cave went to 13 and spence to 12 .Gaston looks another good prospect and much more confident than McIlwaine on the wing which asks the question why did the management play McIlwaine on the wing early in the season because he never struck me as being 100 % at home in that position.
Pienaars cameo at outhalf and coolness at the end makes me more sure that come the Saints game he will either start or end the game at outhalf because that is two games he has won for Ulster on the last kick of the game The Welsh must love him its a pity he’s not Irish
Nice to see an All Black in Ulster White!(?) (see 4th paragraph of this article)!
ADMIN: Thanks Pingu it’s fixed now and I would rather have Luke Marshall in the team than Luke McAllister anyway!
Just seen a re-run of the whole match.
Great to see ‘The Only Greek in Ulster’ getting a full game.
Another solid and dependable performance under his belt.
Happydaze: you must have watched a different game, if you watch on bbc iplayer you will see the greek dropped off a few tackles and not to mention twice not defending the front of the line out which gave the Dragons lots of space and field position, i think there was at least 8 others on the field you would put above him and mention them in your ‘solid and dependable performance’ banner, so your re-run was through greek/rose tinted glasses, watch again.
Sorry Jordy ….. totally disagree with your own tinted glass view.
Kyri’s performance was indeed very solid, especially in the scrums & lineouts. His tackling was as ferocious as ever and he was always in support of the attack. Indeed, two of our tries came direct from perfect lineouts.
Don’t know what game you was watching.
i was pointing out that the only player mentioned with praise was Andi and not at least 8 others that stood out in front of him, and made less mistakes, i think he is a great hooker and deserves game time but it wasn’t he best game, but lately he seems to be golden boy to a select few, personally i would put the 2 local lads in front of him because you are spliting hairs between the 3 of them.
Thought Paddy Jackson didn’t have a very good game, its all well and good playing youngsters in the wide positions but as 10 is such key position that was a risk that didn’t pay off – we looked much better with PM at 9 and RP at 10.
A positive is that Gaston and Gilroy had good games, unfortunately the same cannot be said for D’Arcy – complete shocker (especially for the try) the lad needs to learn to pass the ball! Agree with the mote that McIlwaine wasn’t at home on the wider channels, maybe a chance to play at fullback along with G&G could be a possibility…
Anyway a win’s a win and now on the countdown to the HC QF
SUFTUM!!!
@A_Fan I do hope that young Jackson is not going to become another scapegoat like Niall O’Connor. The youngster has had 60 – 80 miutes of senior rugby for ulster since leaving School last summer. On Friday night he was playing behind a beaten pack for much of the game – with few of the backs looking good – no one does when the opposition is able to get in your face before the ball arrives. Pienaar also, rightly, took on a lot of the decision making with Jackson not actually seeing a lot of ball on the front foot and his defence was sound enough.
Fridays selection was a prudent one by McLaughlin to give some of the youngsters experience and confidence and one which could quite easily have backfired. It didn’t and the grand stand finish should stand those involved in good stead in the years to come.
With, hopefully, a busy end to the season, with Ulster involved on two fronts in the League and Europe, the playing resources are going to be stretched thin. The likes of Jackson, Gaston and Seymour are not going to be involved in Europe but they may be required for a few Magners games between now and the end of the season and Friday’s match will have done them the world of good.