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Michael Allen, who wasted a glorious scoring chance, walks out onto the Ravenhill pitch. INPHO/Dan Sheridan

'Step forward' in performance but errors see Ulster fall back

Luke Marshall and Michael Allen were both guilty of botching great try-scoring chances.

“WE DIDN’T GET the result,” said Ulster’s Jared Payne, “but a step in the right direction is never a bad thing.”

The Kiwi fullback was trying to reflect on the positives after his side lost 13-12 to Glasgow Warriors but lamented a lack of urgency at the breakdown and the squandering of several try-scoring chances. Having won their first 13 games of last season, Ulster are now 0 from 2 and are ninth in the RaboDirect Pro12.

Payne told the BBC, “[Glasgow] held us out and were then good enough to score when they got into our 22 so well done to them. We just weren’t good enough when we got into their 22.”

“We got ourselves into the right position,” he added, “had plenty of cracks but too many mistakes just killed us. Full credit to Glasgow, they defended their hearts out and earned their last try.”

Ulster were camped on the Warriors line for long periods of the second half and when they finally got over the line, the Scots grappled successfully to prevent the ball from being touched down. David McIwaine looked odds on to score but was wrenched upwards in a fine, double-team tackle.

Luke Marshall and Michael Allen will not enjoy the video review session at Newforge on Monday morning:

YouTube credits: RaboDirect PRO12

Warriors coach Gregor Townsend was proud of the effort his players put in to hang on against the torrent of Ulster attacks. His side were reduced to 14 men after Moray Low was sin-binned. He told TheScore.ie, ”Experience tells you that when you lose a man to a yellow card and you’re losing by six points, it’s going to be tough to come back.”

Townsend was in awe of his players’ ability to prevent near-certain Ulster tries by holding the man up over the tryline. He said:

Johnny Gray, our 19-year-old second row, was involved in holding up an Ulster player as he got over the line. He did the same, last week against Cardiff, in the last minute of the game. It’s fine margins, when you are playing teams that are competing at the top but a lot of it is down to effort.”

Ulster supporters could not fault the effort of their players but there are no fine margins about the amount of points they left scattered on the Ravenhill turf at full-time.

– Additional reporting by Megan Joyce.

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