The Front Row Union Sport - BI Cup: Ulster 27 Hartpury 19

We’ve two sets of galleries up for this match. Expecting a bit of a romp for Ulster A against an under strength Hartpury, I’d indicated to the photographers that they should sit at the end Ulster are attacking an wait for the tries to roll in.

Both came back to me with almost identical reports in that it was a disappointing game, perhaps best captured by the comment, “It looks like Hartpury didn’t read the script.“

Adam McBurney crossed for four tries in the match against Hartpury. Photo credit Bob Given|The Front Row Union

I’d guess that both our snappers were frustrated that there were no clear cut tries scored, all of Ulster’s efforts coming from, FRU Favourite, Adam McBurney who rumbled over the line on four occasions in a mass of bodies.

As coach Kieran Campbell said after the game, “It wasn’t a pretty performance.” But it was an important one as Ulster a needed ten points from these two back to back games and it was good to see that they could win ugly as tougher tests are ahead in this competition.

Johnny McPhillips sends a conversion on it’s way against Hartpury. Photo Credit: Graham Service|The Front Row Union

The result sees Ulster in second place in Pool 5 of the British and Irish Cup with a home game against Cornish Pirates to come before an interesting away trip to Llandovery in my old stomping ground of the Welsh Valleys, both games to be played in January.

British and Irish Cup Pool 5 Current Standings.

TEAM	P	W	PD	BP	PTS
Cornish Pirates	4	3	46	2	14
Ulster A	4	3	9	2	14
Scarlets PS	4	2	(23)	1	9
Hartpury RFC	4	0	(32)	3	3

Looking at the other groups Ulster look well set to go through to the playoffs, with five points over the two games probably enough to see them qualify as a highest runner up at least.

However, Scarlets made the table more interesting with a win against the Pirates, in their back to back matches, and they will fancy their chances to take second spot if Ulster don’t get the win against the Cornish boys at Shaw’s Bridge.

All good fun, plenty to play for. Looking forward to it.