MAGNERS LEAGUE: Ulster 9 Cardiff 11: IT WAS an entirely forgettable encounter and Ulster's poor late-season form continued at the hands of a shadow Cardiff side as the home side succumbed to a fourth Magners League defeat in their last six outings.
Hardly the way to sign off from their last home game of the season, but with referee Nigel Owens playing 13 minutes of injury-time you felt Ulster could have played all night and still not find the winning score.
The Blues, fresh from their EDF Trophy success over Gloucester and consequently fielding an entirely changed side ahead of next weekend’s Heineken Cup semi-final with the Leicester Tigers, drew first blood on a damp night at Ravenhill after only three minutes with a Ceri Sweeney penalty.
Though Ulster then lost Paddy Wallace, after the Ireland international centre was helped off the field after shipping a heavy hit in midfield, they had parity with the visitors after eight minutes when Niall O’Connor’s snap drop goal got through the uprights.
Ulster fullback Clinton Schifcofske was then wide with a decent penalty chance, before making amends to give Ulster the lead with his second penalty attempt on 23 minutes.
The home side – with newly selected Lion Stephen Ferris making his presence felt – were then unlucky to miss out on grabbing the opening try after David Pollock’s charge down nearly saw Darren Cave receive a scoring pass from substitute centre Ian Whitten.
But, two minutes before the half hour, some neat handling and continuity play from the Blues allowed fullback James Loxton to score on his debut thanks to a neat offload from veteran Gareth Thomas, and then Jamie Robinson getting the assist after a deft chip over the Ulster line.
Sweeney’s conversion brushed off the wrong side of the upright from the Blues point of view, but he made no mistake with a penalty Ulster conceded under their posts right at the end of the half after a big scrum from the Blues, which saw prop John Yapp take his team-mates’ plaudits for forcing Ulster to collapse on their own put-in.
It was some relief for the Blues, as, just prior to the set-piece, scrumhalf Richie Rees had knocked on as his colleagues lined up outside him with a possible overlap offering a possible seven point reward.
As it was, Cardiff had to be content to lead 11-6 at the turnaround.
Ulster started the second half with some vim, but a long-range drop goal from O’Connor fell short, and then David Pollock was held up short after a lineout move on the line.
Still, Ulster were rewarded with an O’Connor penalty seven minutes before the hour mark to reduce the Blues’ lead to two points.
After that there was little of any note, with O’Connor’s chip just proving too long for Simon Danielli and props Brendon Botha and Rhys Gill both being yellow carded in the closing minutes of normal time.
ULSTER: C Schifcofske; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, S Danielli; N O'Connor, P Marshall; B Young, R Best (capt), B Botha; C Del Fava, R Caldwell; S Ferris, D Pollock, R Diack. Replacements:I Whitten (for P Wallace, 7 mins); T Court (for B Young), I Boss (for P Marshall, both 52 mins); C Henry (for D Pollock, 65 mins); T Nagusa (for Whitten, 67 mins); N Brady (for R Best, 74 mins). Yellow card: B Botha 78 mins.
CARDIFF BLUES:J Loxton; R Mustoe, J Robinson, G Thomas, C Czekaj; C Sweeney, R Rees; R Gill, T Rhys Thomas, J Yapp; D Jones, S Morgan; S Warburton, Robin Sowden Taylor (capt), A Powell. Replacements: R Johnson (for T Rhys Thomas, 10 mins); R Howells (for J Loxton, h-t); B White (for S Warburton, 69 mins). Yellow card: R Gill 78 mins.
Attendance:7,809.
Referee: N Owens (WRU).
