Pienaar dots down for Ulster's second try after a great move from teh team. Picture by Darren Kidd
Ulster eventually managed to snatch a bonus point win against the Dragons in a topsy turvy match on Friday night. The win move’s Ulster to 5th place in the PRO12.
After the mid week shenanigans it was back to the rugby, at long last, but Ulster were a little rusty in the opening exchanges allowing the Dragons to take the initiative. If the Dragons had shown a bit of composure they could possibly have slipped over for a couple of tries but had to make do with three points from the boot of Jason Tovey for all their pressure.
Shortly after Ulster hit a bit of a purple patch, sparked off by a nice move at the front of a line out between Andi Kyriacou and Robbie Diack which saw the big No 8 power over in the corner for Ulster’s first giving Ulste a 5 – 3 lead.
Within minutes Ulster produced the move of the match with the ball passing through nine pairs of hands as they worked their way up-field for Pienaar to score under the posts. Falloon, McComish and Darcy all showed good hands but it was the little inside step from Gilroy that did the damage with the youngster once again asking questions of Ireland’s selection policy for the Six Nations squad.
With Ulster 12 – 3 up the game went through a poor period with neither side getting on top. Tovey slotted over a couple of penalties and Pienaar replied with one to take the half time score to 15 – 9.
[aside type="rant" status="close"]For those of us watching at home the half time entertainment consisted of Shane Logan giving a rather pointless and confused interview to BBC Ulster on the coaching saga. I had toyed with the idea of doing an article on the contradictions on what he said regarding the timing of the coaching decision making process and those trotted out by David Humphreys and Brian McLaughlin earlier in the week but I slept this morning and there is too much good rugby on today so I’m not going to bother.
Suffice to say this rare appearance by the bumbling Logan added little clarity to proceedings making me wonder why he bothered at all? [/aside]
Tovey slotted over his fourth penalty shortly after the break, but Ulster responded almost immediately claiming the re-start to eventually send Gilroy blasting over fro a well taken try. Pienaar added the extras and Ulster led 20 -12.
A lack of discipline and/or over officious officials (take your pick) resulted in first Falloon and then Whitten being yellow carded leaving Ulster with 14 men for much of the closing quarter. With neither side dominating, as the clock counted down, the game looked to be stumbling to a close and when John Afoa pointed for the posts in the dying minutes it looked as though the game would end with a regulation win for the hosts with Pienaars kick taking the score to 23 – 12.
There was one final twist in the tail however With Ali birch snatching up a dropped pass from the Dragons to sprint set of for the far corner. The Dungannon forward was dragged down five yards out by the covering Tovey, but Ulster showed enough composure to work the ball to Terblanche who strolled over for the bonus point try. Pienaar converted with thelast kick of the game giving Ulster a welcome 30 -12 win.
Ulster (15-9): Adam D’Arcy, Craig Gilroy, Ian Whitten, Nevin Spence, Stefan Terblanche, Ian Humphreys, Ruan Pienaar. (1-8): Callum Black, Andi Kyriacou, John Afoa (capt), Lewis Stevenson, Dan Tuohy, Mike McComish, Willie Faloon, Robbie Diack. (16-23): Nigel Brady, Paddy McAllister, Adam Macklin, Tim Barker, Ali Birch, Paul Marshall, Michael Allen, Simon Danielli.
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