Friendly: Bayonne 15 Ulster 20

Aug 102012

Neil McComb scores his first try for Ulster against Bayonne.

Report

Ulster produced their first victory on French soil with a surprise 20 – 15 victory against Bayonne in the Belfast sides first pre-season fixture.

I must admit I didn’t see this one coming, especially as Ulster started with such a young side, and it is a big boost for new coach Mark Anscombe with the result racking the calibre of our squad up a notch or two given the comparatively inexperienced team who were able to grind out a result at a venue renowned for proving difficult for visiting teams.

Patrick Jackson kick started Ulster’s season with an early penalty in front of the posts but Bayonne responded quickly with a converted try taking the score to 7 – 3. Bayonne added a second try before the break to take the score to 12 – 3 and with Adam Macklin yellow carded with a few minutes to go to half time it looked as though Ulster would be under the cosh for the second period.

Ulster swapped out quite a few at the break starting with Black, Herring, Afoa, Stevenson, McComb, McCormish, Doyle, Diack, Heaney, O’Connor, Andrew, Marshall, Allen, Gilroy and Nelson and the changes reaped rewards with Heaney darting over for Ulster’s first try. O’Connor converted taking the score to 12 -10.

Ali Birch came on for Sean Doyle and Ulster eventually took the lead with an O’Connor penalty taking the score to 12 – 13 after 68 minutes.

Bayonne responded with their own penalty on the 73rd minute to go back in front 15 – 13 as the game approached it’s final stages. There was still time for big Neil McCombe to score his first points for Ulster with the Quins player galloping over to put Ulster in the lead on the 78th minute. O’Connor added the conversion and Ulster held on for a memorable 15 – 20 win.

Ulster: Peter Nelson, Craig Gilroy, Jared Payne, Chris Farrell, Chris Cochrane, Paddy Jackson, Blane McIlroy, Callum Black, Niall Annett, Adam Macklin, Johann Muller (c), Neil McComb, Mike McComish, Sean Doyle, Robbie Diack. Replacements: Rob Herring, Ricky Lutton, John Afoa, Lewis Stevenson, Ali Birch, Michael Heaney, Niall O’Connor, Luke Marshall, Michael Allen, Ricky Andrew.