Ulster survive scare to overcome Cardiff with record-equalling display

ULSTER 24

CARDIFF BLUES 17

Neil Carnduff at the Kingspan Stadium

ULSTER RECOVERED FROM a slow start tonight at the Kingspan Stadium to run four tries past Cardiff Blues and extend their run of unbeaten Guinness Pro12 home matches to a record-equalling 14 games.

Trailing for all but five minutes of the first half, Neil Doak’s side regrouped well with tries from Andrew Trimble, Paul Marshall, Nick Williams and Stuart McCloskey to claim their third consecutive bonus-point home victory of the season, and move to third in the standings.

Cardiff Blues — already beaten on the road by the three other Irish provinces this season — started like they meant business, forcing penalties at the breakdown and a subsequent scrum to present out-half Rhys Patchell with an elementary three points in the fourth minute.

Once an advanced Ulster lineout then scrum had proven fruitless, the hosts began to find a little more joy through open play, but a handling error by Williams and a speculative up-and-under from Ian Humphreys led to frustration until the out-half looped a defence-splitting pass to Louis Ludik on 18 minutes, with Trimble collecting from his full-back on the right wing to land his first try of the campaign.

Humphreys’ conversion fell short, and with Patchell adding his second and third penalties either side of the half-hour mark, Ulster needed the full extent of the remainder of the half to re-establish a lead.

After Number Eight Josh Turnbull had been yellow-carded on 40 minutes for recklessly launching himself feet-first into the middle of a maul where his studs caught Marshall on the side of the head, the Ulster scrum-half dusted himself off to pick up from the resulting scrum and touch down his second try of the season, with Humphreys converting.

Doak’s side began to turn the screw early in the second half, their well-orchestrated rolling maul travelling a good 20 metres infield for Williams to finally ground by the posts on 44 minutes, providing Humphreys with a simple conversion.

The Kiwi Number Eight was instrumental in the bonus-point try six minutes later, dummying an infield pass on the Blues’ ‘22’ before swivelling to pick out Trimble for an electric move which, eventually saw McCloskey shrug off Patchell’s tackle to just stretch over the whitewash.

Humphreys’ missed conversion was his last contribution of the evening as the returning Paddy Jackson came on to a rousing reception, soon to be joined by Darren Cave, Peter Browne and Andrew Warwick. With Wiehahn Herbst sinbinned just before the hour for failing to retreat as Blues tried to take a quick penalty, Josh Navidi soon stretched over for the visitors’ first try, which went unconverted.

Undeterred, Ulster resisted the ensuing waves of Cardiff attack, Patchell eventually clawing back three points on 72 minutes to bring his side to within a converted try of parity. However a flagrant tip-tackle from winger Aled Summerhill on Craig Gilroy saw the visitors once again reduced to 14, essentially killing their hopes of a comeback as Ulster saw out the game with a strong line defending their ‘22’.

Lineups:

Ulster (15 – 9) Louis Ludik; Andrew Trimble, Sam Arnold, Stuart McCloskey, Craig Gilroy; Ian Humphreys, Paul Marshall

(1 – 8) Callum Black, Rob Herring (c), Wiehahn Herbst, Lewis Stevenson, Franco van der Merwe, Roger Wilson, Sean Reidy, Nick Williams

Replacements (16 – 23) John Andrew, Andrew Warwick, Ricky Lutton, Peter Browne, Willie Faloon, David Shanahan, Paddy Jackson, Darren Cave

Cardiff Blues (15 – 9) Dan Fish; Aled Summerhill, Tom Isaacs, Adam Thomas, Richard Smith; Rhys Patchell, Tavis Knoyle

(1 – 8) Sam Hobbs, Matthew Rees, Craig Mitchell, Lou Reed, James Down, Cameron Dolan, Josh Navidi (c), Josh Turnbull

Replacements (16 – 23) Ethan Lewis, Thomas Davies, Taufa’ao Filise, Chris Dicomidis, Macauley Cook, Lewis Jones, Jarrod Evans, Garyn Smith

Scorers:

Ulster:

Tries: Trimble, P Marshall, Williams, McCloskey

Conversions: Humphreys (2)

Cardiff Blues:

Tries: Navidi

Penalties: Patchell (4)

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