Magners League - Edinburgh 25 Ulster 37:ULSTER ACHIEVED the victory they sought at Murrayfield yesterday to lift them clear of Connacht in the race for the third Irish European place next season in a match that re-established the Ravenhill side's playing credentials, while simultaneously wrecking Edinburgh's hopes of a place in the Magners semi-finals.
The sides looked evenly matched but what made the real difference for an Ulster side that had looked stronger in the forward battle was the appearance of Ian Humphreys off the bench.
The outhalf gave a fine all round display, injecting pace into the attack, kicking astutely and contributing 12 points.
Edinburgh opened the scoring with a Phil Godman penalty but Ulster quickly stated their intentions with a fine score. Andrew Trimble started the move but it was the outside break by Darren Cave and the centre’s reverse pass to Jamie Smith that set up the try. Smith, veering infield, had the pace and footwork to beat the despairing tackle of Mark Robertson, allowing the fullback to touch down under the posts and leave Niall O’Connor with an easy conversion.
Godman had a chance to row back some points only for his penalty kick to stray off target. But at the other end O’Connor, from a similar distance, made no mistake to give Ulster a 10-3 advantage.
Edinburgh then woke up to the prospect of defeat and began to attack the Ulster defence. A touchline dash by Ben Cairns brought them close to the tryline and when the ball was moved wide, winger Tim Visser, coming off his blindside beat, had the strength to swat off the Ulster defence and touch down. Godman added the points to leave the teams locked at 10-10 going into the break.
Ulster broke the deadlock early in the second half with a try from Scotland wing Simon Danielli from a classic break by replacement Humphreys.
Ulster’s growing confidence produced a third try as the game moved into the last quarter. Trimble did the damage, first sparking an attack to the left and then when the attack changed direction, running wide of the Edinburgh defence before passing to Ian Whitten who easily rounded replacement wing Andrew Turnbull to score in the corner.
A Godman penalty put Edinburgh within a score of Ulster but almost immediately hopes of a home revival were shattered when Humphreys charged down Ben Cairns’s clearance to score and then convert for the bonus point.
And it got worse for Edinburgh as Stephen Ferris scooped up ball lost in the tackle to romp 40 metres for Ulster’s fifth try, converted by Humphreys.
Visser replied with his second try four minutes from full time and then, in an action-packed finish, Turnbull raced in for Edinburgh’s third try but a penalty by Humphreys sealed a fine win.
EDINBURGH:B Cairns; T Visser, N De Luca, J Houston, M Robertson; P Godman, G Laidlaw; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, S MacLeod, J Hamilton, A MacDonald, R Grant, D Callam. Replacements:M Blair for Laidlaw (50 mins), K Traynor for Cross, A Turnbull for Robertson (both 58 mins), S Newlands for Callam (67 mins).
ULSTER:J Smith; A Trimble, D Cave, I Whitten, S Danielli; N O'Connor, P Marshall; T Court, R Best, B J Botha, E O'Donoghue, D Tuohy , S Ferris, W Faloon, R Diack. Replacements:I Humphreys for O'Connor (36 mins), B Young for Court, I Boss for Smith (both 60 mins), R Caldwell for Tuohy (61 mins), N Spence for Trimble (73 mins), A Kyricaou for Best, T Anderson for Faloon (both 75 mins).
Referee:N Owens (Wales)
