Thrifty Ulster took their chances when they came along tonight at an inclement Scotstoun Stadium, taking advantage of their sole try-scoring opportunity through Chris Henry to claim a vital Heineken Cup away victory and remain atop Pool Four.
Torrential rain and a slippery field of play kept the approach of both teams exceedingly basic, with Ulster edging the contest thanks to better ball-carrying from the forwards, and superior goal-kicking from Paddy Jackson on a night when the Glaswegians squandered three penalties and a conversion – which, if all had been scored, would have secured them a draw.
Head coach Mark Anscombe made two changes from the first XV who had put four tries past Castres Friday last, with two players who had impressed against the Frenchmen dropped to the bench – two-try hero Paul Marshall, and the versatile Mike McComish, who had excelled although out of position at Number Eight. However, the pedigree and the current form of the men who replaced them – Ruan Pienaar, whose cameo role last week secured the bonus point, and Nick Williams, Ulster’s player of the season so far – made Anscombe’s decision a fully justifiable one.
The first quarter of the match was a cagey affair, punctuated by two narrow penalty misses from the visitors and one from the hosts. After Jackson had only just failed with a fourth-minute kick from the half-way line, Pienaar tried his luck from an even more remote 62 metres, and was unfortunate to see the ball drop just short of the crossbar. Then Glasgow centre Peter Horne watched his own kick veer just off target on 18 minutes from only a few metres inside Ulster territory.
Horne did open his side’s account with a second attempt moments later, after Ulster had been pulled up for a second successive infringement at the scrum. But with Glasgow penalised for not releasing the ball in the tackle on 23 minutes, Jackson levelled the score from in front of the posts. Ulster then began to mount a higher level of pressure and, with Warriors captain Alastair Kellock pulled up for entering the maul from the side, the youthful out-half kicked his team into a tentative lead at Glasgow 3 Ulster 6 just short of the half-hour.
Accidental crossing by Ulster gave Horne the opportunity to square things up just before the break, but in the slippery conditions the centre got his angles all wrong and his kick veered wildly to the left of the posts. The match’s first potential try-scoring chance then came in the last minute of the half, when Andrew Trimble latched onto Pienaar’s box-kick and did well to hang on under the challenge and find a team-mate from the floor. Ulster moved the ball well, but the crossfield attack broke down with an unlucky knock-on by John Afoa.
Half-Time Score Glasgow 3 Ulster 6
An early penalty attempt from Horne failed to restore parity on 42 minutes as the kick again careered wide, and a superb interception from Jackson on halfway then put Ulster back in control, Pienaar’s subsequent kick forcing the Warriors to clear into touch on their own ’22’. A line-out and scrum later, strong ball-carrying from Williams and Tom Court took Ulster well past the gain line, and, while Glasgow did well to clear their lines initially, the visitors launched another offensive which was only snuffed out when several pairs of Glasgow hands somehow lifted the colossal Williams into touch on the right wing.
Pienaar saw another long-distance penalty fall just short on the hour – this one from 58 minutes – but with Glasgow again coming in from the side immediately from the restart, the scrum-half opted to kick to touch for a line-out inside the ’22’. A tremendous drive from Rory Best’s put-in ended with Henry swivelling amid a sea of bodies as the maul collapsed behind the line to ground the all-important score. Jackson’s extras made it Glasgow 3 Ulster 13 with 18 minutes remaining.
The out-half compounded the lead 90 seconds later courtesy of a fine 46-metre penalty, and while Glasgow enjoyed a lengthy spell of possession which carried them well past the 70-minute mark, they failed to create any discernible chances despite all their pressure, and indeed, it was Ulster who were to have the next word, thanks to a Jackson penalty on 75 minutes.
Warriors grabbed a late consolation try through Nikola Matawalu, who did well to collect Scott Wight’s kick to the corner on 78 minutes, but Ruaridh Jackson’s errant conversion ensured that Ulster finished the encounter with a comfortable 11-point cushion. Next up in Europe for the Ulstermen will be Northampton on 7 December at Franklin’s Gardens, before the return fixture at Ravenhill the following week.
Full-Time Score Glasgow 8 Ulster 19
Glasgow Warriors
(15 – 9) S Hogg; B McGuigan, P Murchie, P Horne, A Dunbar; R Jackson, H Pyrgos
(1 – 8) R Grant, D Hall, M Cusack, T Ryder, A Kellock (c), J Strauss, C Fusaro, R Wilson
Replacements (16 – 23) F Gillies, O Fainga’anuku, G Reid, T Swinson, R Harley, J Barclay, S Wight, N Matawalu
Ulster
(15 – 9) J Payne; T Bowe, D Cave, P Wallace, A Trimble; P Jackson, R Pienaar
(1 – 8) T Court, R Best, J Afoa, J Muller (c), D Tuohy, I Henderson, C Henry, N Williams
Replacements (16 – 23) R Herring, C Black, A Macklin, L Stevenson, M McComish, P Marshall, L Marshall, C Gilroy
