EdinburghThe hosts Ulster secured a bonus point win at Ravenhill on Friday evening as a lacklustre Edinburgh side failed to score any points.

“In the second half we had nine penalties against us and the two tries that killed us came from when Mike was sent off for a yellow card. I thought that [yellow card] was the turning point of the game.

“The final penalty count ended up 14-4 and when you get a penalty count like that and a card, that’s the difference. Having said that, Ulster deserved the win on the night.”

edinburghrugby

In front of a near full house at Kingspan Stadium, the game began at pace, the visitors making the first foray into Ulster territory. A series of reset scrums in both halves slowed things down, however, the home side emerging stronger and pressing for points triggering some frantic defending from Edinburgh.

After 13 minutes, however, Paddy Jackson scored the first of his two penalties, Edinburgh pinged for coming in at the side; five minutes later Edinburgh had the chance to level the score after Tonks was taken in the air. Forty metres out, from the touchline, was a bridge too far for Jack Cuthbert

Rejuvenated, Ulster dotted down for the try on the 25 minute mark, Andrew Trimble crossing as Visser missed the tackle, Jackson adding the extras and then some, in the shape of another penalty to put the home side comfortably 13-0 ahead at half time.

With Grant Gilchrist not returning to the field after a knock to the nose and Tonks replaced by McLennan, Ulster started the second half by pushing deep into Edinburgh territory, but missed further chances through spilled ball and solid defence from the visitors.

Scrum infringements put paid to an opportunity to put points on the board further into the second half, and Allan Dell made his first team debut, replacing BT Academy player Rory Sutherland, who had put in a solid shift against experienced counterparts.

A raft of replacements around the 60 minute mark gave fresh legs to the cause however a yellow card for captain Mike Coman paved the way for the inevitable second try, from Williams, followed by another five pointer from Rory Best, the result of a driving maul, with the extras added by Olding.

The bonus point score completed the brace for Trimble, with Visser wrong-footed in the lead-up, and with one minute on the clock that tied up the game.

Solomons added: “I think we made a rod for our own back because we did really well against Munster, we fell off our game and really didn’t perform well against Connacht and then had a poor performance against Ospreys and tonight we played against a strong Ulster side and were on the wrong end of a penalty count.

“We know we’re a decent side and there’s no reason, if we play well and put in a good performance that we’re going to get the result next weekend.”

 

Team lineups

pro12rugby

Ulster V Edinburgh
P D C T Pos Player Player Pos T C D P  
Replacement off Louis Ludik 15 Greig Tonks Replacement off
2 Andrew Trimble 14 Jack Cuthbert
Jared Payne 13 Sam Beard
Stuart McCloskey 12 Andries Strauss
Tommy Bowe 11 Tim Visser
Replacement off 2 1 Paddy Jackson 10 Phil Burleigh Replacement off
Paul Marshall 9 Sean Kennedy Replacement off
Replacement off Ruaidhri Murphy 1 Rory Sutherland Replacement off
Replacement off 1 Rory Best 2 Ross Ford Replacement off
Replacement off Wiehahn Herbst 3 John Andress Replacement off
Alan O’Connor 4 Anton Bresler
Replacement off Franco van der Merwe 5 Grant Gilchrist Replacement off
Robbie Diack 6 Mike Coman Yellow card
Chris Henry 7 Roddy Grant Replacement off
Replacement off Roger Wilson 8 Cornell du Preez
Replacements
Replacement on Rob Herring 16 James Hilterbrand Replacement on
Replacement on Andrew Warwick 17 Allan Dell Replacement on
Replacement on Bronson Ross 18 WP Nel Replacement on
Replacement on Lewis Stevenson 19 Ollie Atkins Replacement on
Replacement on 1 Nick Williams 20 Tomas Leonardi Replacement on
Michael Heaney 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne Replacement on
Replacement on 1 Stuart Olding 22 Tom Heathcote Replacement on
Replacement on Darren Cave 23 Nick McLennan Replacement on

 

Man of the Match: Stuart McCluskey

4 Responses to Guinness PRO12: Under fire Solomons’ Edinburgh mis-fire AGAIN

  • 1

    Not looking good for Edinburgh who started so well this season beating Munster away from home but have since then drawn once and lost three times, one loss by 7 or less and two really big defeats, this one by 30 points and being hammered by 49 points by Ospreys which is the biggest margin of defeat so far this season. I understand that they have been hampered by injury with some key players recently coming back from injury and others still out, but at least would have expected to see a bit more fight from them.

  • 2

    Allan Dell made his PRO12 debut coming on off the bench around 41 minutes, won’t be the best of memories for him. A few of the Edinburgh scrums with him and WP Nel as props were really good pushing the Ulster pack back, but the Edinburgh scrum was penalized quite a bit just like a few weeks ago really puzzling is it down to refs interpretation or something in the scrumming technique.

  • 3

    What was really disappointing was that they conceded a bonus point for conceding 4 tries against an Ulster team that had lost the weekend before to Zebre and with the game being played in damp conditions. At the very least they should have reverted to keeping it tight among the forwards and holding the defensive line strong to keep Ulster out and tried to come away with a losing bonus point as a minimum. Hopefully as the players who have returned from injuries get more game time things will go better for Edinburgh who sit in 10th spot on the table.

  • 4

    There were 10 players with South African connections (highlighted in green in team lists) playing in this match, 5 for both teams.

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