Ulster 42 Cheetahs 19
An evening of notable firsts – the new-look Guinness Pro14 kicking off along with the initial sighting of the freshly recruited Cheetahs – ended with Ulster gathering up all they would have wanted from a helter-skelter nine-try game.
Six of those scores fell to Les Kiss’s men in what at times seemed to be more of a Super Rugby try-fest than the usual fare expected from this league with the winning of this clash coming with the first Cheetahs sin-binning when Ulster racked up 19 unanswered points to end the half leading 27-14 and with their try bonus in the bag.
Ulster will also doubtless breathe a sigh of relief that the Cheetahs – currently also playing in the Currie Cup – are not in their conference and therefore there is no trip to Bloemfontein but, key to this game, was just registering the five points and weathering an early Cheetahs storm and from that point of view it was a case of a job well done.
Elsewhere, for the home side, Christain Lealiifano looked the part on his debut as did South African duo Jean Deysel, making his competitive debut, and the returning Marcell Coetzee while Charles Piutau looked sharp throughout.
William Small-Smith was well off-target with a second minute penalty for the Cheetahs but after Charles Piutau's hard and ambitious running had brought Ulster into Cheetahs territory, a high hit on Coetzee resulted in John Cooney bisecting the uprights on seven minutes.
But the Cheetahs then showed their pace and ambition in attack and shortly after Small-Smith couldn't get to a ball kicked through by Shaun Venter, Rosco Specman's counter off a high ball saw him shred Ulster's first up defence to put Clayton Blommetjies away.
Small-Smith converted the 15th-minute score, though the Cheetahs' lead was quickly cut when Tommy Bowe burst through for an unconverted try.
The see-saw nature of the contest didn’t end there though as Makazola Mapimpi’s hack through led to the winger dotting down after sprinting past Piutau with Small-Smith adding the extras.
The South Africans now led 14-8 but, yet again, the lead quickly changed hands and five minutes later, with 26 minutes on the clock, Alan O'Connor got Ulster's third – with Henco Venter in the bin – via the TMO with Cooney's conversion nudging the province ahead by one point at 15-14.
And it wasn’t finished there either as the frenetic nature of the scores continued via Stuart McCloskey and Piutau – both receiving a helping hand from Coetzee – who both dotted down within three minutes of each other with the Kiwi’s effort bringing up the bonus point with Ulster leading 27-14 two minutes after the half hour.
Indeed the breathless half ended with no further action on the scoreboard though Ulster were over again after a minute when Deysel's tackle released the ball and Piutau's soft hands saw Louis Ludik battle his way over though Cooney couldn't convert.
The Cheetahs then sneaked a score when Sergeal Peterson was put clear and, as usual, Ulster almost immediately responded though replacement Peter Nelson’s effort was ruled out by the TMO.
Cooney's 55th-minute penalty calmed things down a bit and took Ulster to 35-19 and after Johan Coetzee's high tackle on Andrew Trimble in the 63rd minute the Cheetahs were reduced to 14 again.
This time Nelson was the only home player to score and he converted his own 74th minute effort.
ULSTER: C Piutau; A Trimble, T Bowe, S McCloskey, L Ludik; C Lealiifano, J Cooney; K McCall, R Herring, W Herbst; R Diack, A O'Connor; J Deysel, C Henry (capt), M Coetzee.
Replacements: P Nelson for Lealiifiano and S Reidy for Coetzee (both 51 mins), R Ah You for Herbst and M Rea for O'Connor (both 61 mins), D Cave for Piutau, J Andrew for Herring and C Black for McCall (all 68mins), D Shanahan for Cooney (75 mins).
CHEETAHS: S Petersen; R Specman, W Small-Smith, A Mgijima, M Mapimpi; C Blommetjies, S Venter; C Marais, J du Toit, J Coetzee; J Basson, R Hugo; P Schoeman, H Venter, N Jordaan (capt).
Replacements: C Afrika for Specman (15 mins), R Benjamin for Blommetjies (42 mins), T van Jaarsveld for Marais (51 mins) , O Nche for du Toit (51 mins), R Bernardo for Basson (52 mins), T Meyer for S Venter (64 mins), G Oliver for Hugo (68 mins).
Referee: A Brace (IRFU)
