An 80th minute penalty from Ian Madigan sent Ulster through to the Guinness PRO14 final for the first time since 2013.

In true Ulster fashion, they made hard work of it against an Edinburgh side who could have been out of sight after they opened up both a 12-0 lead and a 19-7 lead. Inspired by second half substitutions, Ulster showed tremendous grit and determination to topple a very good Edinburgh side.

Edinburgh’s South African winger Duhan van der Merwe wrecked havoc down in the first half and was the left wing position which saw Richard Cockerill‘s side have a lot of joy. To counter this, Dan McFarland swapped Jacob Stockdale to wing, brought Michael Lowry on for Louis Ludik and moved Rob Lyttle to the right wing. Up against a much bigger player, Lyttle was fantastic at nullifying the threat of van der Merwe.

This statistic is extremely telling to how Ulster got themselves back into the match.

So many different factors as to why Edinburgh failed to finish the job last night, but Ulster’s ability to reduce the impact of Duhan van der Merwe after the break was crucial. His stats were:

1st half metres made – 98
2nd half metres made – 3 pic.twitter.com/WKLJT8WQ2b

— Andy Burke (@AndyBurke_) September 6, 2020

Missed chances plagued Ulster’s first half. They had opportunities including spending 10 minutes inside the 22m line atter Stuart McInally crossed for Edinburgh’s opening try. Knock ons from Stuart McCloskey and Marcell Coetzee spoiled attacking positions while Hamish Watson came up with a couple of turnovers.

Five-nil at half time was a fair reflection, both sides had missed opportunities with both back rows coming to the fore. Coetzee came up with a turnover at the end of the half after a break from van der Merwe. Looking at the first half, neither side would have came close in the final next week against Leinster.

Ulster defended reasonably well throughout the match. Although they gave up quite a few missed tackles (26) there were covering defenders to mop up, unlike in the previous two matches against Leinster and Connacht. However Darcy Graham added Edinburgh’s second score six minutes into the second half to put 12 points between the sides.

In both of Ulster’s previous two outings Ulster have been left with 10+ point deficit to overcome. Leinster led Ulster 16-0 after last week but a try from Rob Herring and penalty from John Cooney brought them back into the game while they came from 14-0 down to trail by only one point against Connacht.

Ulster’s hunger and desire, helped with some magic footwork from Lyttle got his side on the board however this was immediately cancelled out by Chris Dean. Edinburgh began to concede sloppy penalties which Ulster punished. Both Rob Herring and John Andrew scored tries from mauls to tie the game with five minutes remaining.

The introduction of Alby Mathewson had Ulster looking a lot more confident on the ball. Although there were still errors, offensively he had the side looking more incisive as they began to make more metres from their carries. Buoyed by this, the energy levels remained constant, while Edinburgh looked out on their feet by the end of the match.

Coetzee was outstanding and came up with a number of vital turnovers as he has done all season. Viliame Mata was kept quiet, making no clean breaks and only beating one defender with Ulster’s defenders limiting the amount of offloads.

Teams

EDINBURGH: Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham, Mark Bennett, Chris Dean, Duhan van der Merwe, Jaco van der Walt, Nic Groom, Rory Sutherland, Stuart McInally (C), WP Nel, Ben Toolis, Grant Gilchrist, Magnus Bradbury, Hamish Watson, Bill Mata. Replacements: Mike Willemse, Pierre Schoeman, Simon Berghan, Andrew Davidson, Jamie Ritchie, Charlie Shiel, Nathan Chamberlain, George Taylor

ULSTER: Jacob Stockdale, Louis Ludik, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Rob Lyttle, Billy Burns (C), John Cooney, Eric O’Sullivan, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Sam Carter, Matthew Rea, Jordi Murphy, Marcell Coetzee. Replacements: John Andrew, Jack McGrath, Marty Moore, Kieran Treadwell, Sean Reidy, Alby Mathewson, Ian Madigan, Michael Lowry

Champions Cup Qualification

With the new format for the Champions Cup being announced during the week and sparking widespread confusion, defeating Edinburgh sees Ulster guarantee themselves a tier one spot for next year’s competition. With Tier one sides facing tier four teams in the group stages, Ulster should have ‘easier’ fixtures in theory, however with Toulouse and Montpellier or Castres the tier four representation from France, I’m not so sure in practice.

Looking to next week…

Honestly, I don’t think Leinster will be particularly worried about what they saw from Ulster last night. Slow starts have cost Ulster dear in past trips down to Dublin 4. In four of the last five matches between the two sides, Leinster have scored tries inside six minutes, forcing Ulster into a five or seven point deficit. Leo Cullen’s side feed off Ulster mistakes, so Dan McFarland’s men will need to be at their most accurate to come out with a win.