Ulster 48
Cardiff 12
TWO TRIES FROM Robert Baloucoune and a player-of-the-match performance by Stewart Moore helped Ulster back to the top of the United Rugby Championship standings in a dominant display at Kingspan Stadium, six tries helping them to a 48-12 win over a lacklustre Cardiff.
Ireland winger Baloucoune showed his pace, scoring Ulster’s first and fifth tries, while Ireland No.8 Nick Timoney and centre James Hume also helped themselves to scores, and Andy Farrell will have watched on with interest ahead of next week’s trip to Twickenham as Iain Henderson completed the full game in the second row.
Hume’s centre partner Stuart McCloskey was on top form in the win, helping himself to a try and and setting up a couple more, while it was also a big night for the province as they saw flanker Jordi Murphy make his first appearance since May, while they also got John Cooney back on the pitch for the first time since January in the rout.
There was even time for first senior Ulster tries for winger Aaron Sexton and Tom Stewart, the two youngsters going over for the final two scores as Dan McFarland’s men leapfrog above Leinster into top spot in the standings, albeit temporarily.
Baloucoune was over for his first inside the opening ten minutes, although it was a stroke of good fortune that got him the score as Billy Burns’ crossfield kick got a favourable bounce, pulling back over the head of the covering Hallam Amos and into the winger’s hands.
The Ireland winger still had plenty to do, stepping inside both Amos and the covering Owen Lane, but once a clear path opened up to the try line, he was home and dry.
Willis Halaholo was then sin-binned when he played the ball on the floor inside his own 22, although he perhaps will feel aggrieved that referee Hollie Davidson went for the yellow card so early, and it allowed Nathan Doak, who converted Baloucoune’s try, to stick over an easy three.
But the extra man wasn’t to blame for Hume’s score, that was down to the centre’s excellent defensive read.
It came off a Josh Turnbull break, the second row finding a soft shoulder just inside the Ulster half and rampaging into the 22 where Lloyd Williams was well felled by Baloucoune. Sensing the overlap on the far touchline, Cardiff fly-half Jarrod Evans went for the long pass over the top, but Hume read it well to pick it off and run it from his own 22m line under the sticks for the seven-pointer.
It looked like that would be as good as it would get for Ulster in the first half as they struggled to keep the scoreboard ticking over, and they needed to complete a strong defensive stand on their own line after a nice break by Owen Lane down the wing, but McCloskey provided the perfect half-time boost on the stroke of the interval.
It was the centre himself who set it up, his short pass inside sending Timoney through the gap and just shy of the line after a great carry that mixed supreme power and pace, and McCloskey was on hand to follow it in with the next carry that forced him over the whitewash.
Cardiff struck inside the first five minutes of the second half, hooker Kirby Myhill going over in the corner after Evans had sent Rey Lee-Lo through with a nice off-load, but what perhaps looked like it could be the start of a comeback turned out to be a false dawn.
Instead, Ulster would take charge and they would do so emphatically. Timoney would go over for the bonus point score only a couple of minutes after the Welsh region had gotten themselves back into it, the No.8 thumping his way over the line from close range.
McFarland then brought his heavy hitters off the bench in the form of Cooney and Duane Vermeulen and from there it was a case of no way back for the visitors.
After Stewart Moore timed his pass to perfection to set him into clean air, Baloucoune showed another fantastic turn of pace to beat opposite number Lane down the touchline and over the line for his second and Ulster’s fifth, using the supporting Cooney on his inside as a decoy, before the next wave of talent decided to get in on the scoring.
Sexton was put over, again by full-back Moore, for a walk-over try in the corner after a period of dominance in the 22 before a strong driving maul was piloted over by Stewart to round off Ulster’s scoring for the night.
Replacement flanker James Ratti got a consolation for Cardiff with only a few minutes remaining and Hume thought he had a second length of the field effort with the final play of the game, only for the TMO to rule it out for a forward pass in the build-up.
Scorers for Ulster: Tries: Baloucoune (2), Hume, McCloskey, Timoney, Sexton, Stewart; Cons: Doak (3), Cooney (2); Pen: Doak
Scorers for Cardiff: Tries: Myhill, Ratti; Con: Thomas
ULSTER: Stewart Moore; Robert Baloucoune (Aaron Sexton 57), James Hume, Stuart McCloskey (Ian Madigan 64), Ben Moxham; Billy Burns, Nathan Doak (John Cooney 50); (1-8) Jack McGrath (Callum Reid 40), John Andrew (Tom Stewart 57), Marty Moore (Gareth Milasinovich 58); Alan O’Connor (Sam Carter 58), Iain Henderson; Jordi Murphy (Duane Vermeulen 50), Marcus Rea, Nick Timoney.
CARDIFF: Hallam Amos (Matthew Morgan 51); Owen Lane, Rey Lee-Lo, Willis Halaholo (Ben Thomas 50), Aled Summerhill; Jarrod Evans, Lloyd Williams (Jamie Hill 58); (1-8) Brad Thyer (Rhys Carre 50), Kirby Myhill (Keiron Assiratti 58), Dmitri Arhip (Will Davies-King 42); Josh Turnbull, Matthew Screech (Teddy Williams 58); Ellis Jenkins, Josh Navidi, James Botham (James Ratti 58).
Yellow card: Willis Halaholo (13′)
Referee: Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
Gavan Casey, Bernard Jackman and Murray Kinsella lament the grey areas around high tackles, dig into French rugby’s pipeline, and break some big Connacht transfer news
The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
Ulster have some amount of ballers in their backline stocks. Its crazy a fella as good as Addison is barely missed
Brilliant performance against a strong Cardiff selection. Hopefully the right time to come to the boil. We were trying to play like this at the start of the season and winning but looking sloppy. Then we took a few defeats. But now we are clicking and looking the real deal. Hopefully we’ll be full strength against Toulouse and play like tonight.
@Sustainable Hedgehog: to be fair I thought Cardiff were the better team in the first half but sloppy handling let them down. Ulster got 2 pretty lucky tries and one good one late in the half. Second half was a different story, Ulster looked very solid and controlled the pace.
@Michael Bryson: You have a pretty unique view of the first half. None of the Cardiff fans I know felt so. Ulster’s rush defence destroyed Cardiff’s attack, our forwards broke them down and took the game away from them. It’s a great result, a weaker Blues side beat Leinster.
@Sustainable Hedgehog: not really that unique, from my viewpoint in the stand the consensus was that Cardiff built pressure much better than us in the first half and went through the phases better than we did. Yes our defence was good but they lacked cutting edge which was fortunate and give better teams that much ball they will be out of sight by half time. Just watched the game back and stand by my 1st half assessment.
@Michael Bryson: To be clear I am not belittling the result, great result from a game where I was worried by Cardiffs team sheet before hand. Just a little worried about some of our side to side and kick away tactics in first half. Much better in second half though.
@Michael Bryson: Michael, Ulster play a brand of rugby that involves taking risks in defence and attack. Predictable, risk free rugby won’t cut it if we want to be winning trophies. Ulster put a good Cardiff side under immense pressure and beat them well. These are the nights we should enjoy.
@Sustainable Hedgehog: I never said I didn’t enjoy it and at no point do I say that I disagree with the way we are playing. I am just a little worried about the bigger picture against the bigger teams with regards to control of the game. However as someone who has been a season ticket holder for over 20 years I am just conditioned to be reluctant to get too excited with our chances…#toomayfalsedawns but the sun will rise eventually!
@Michael Bryson: I get what you are saying. But I didnt think Cardiff were the better team in the first half, but they were certainly in it, most stats would have been 50:50, except the scoreline. But it was a very strong Cardiff team, with 13 internationals, it was never going to be all one way or close to it, I still think Ulster were the better side in the first half, but Cardiff had their moments.
Our weakness at the start of the season was dominating games but not being able to turnbthat into points, we dominated Leinster but couldn’t build the scoreboard, and were a score away from defeat, against Ospreys we did lose, Clermont came close. Nearly every game up to Christmas we dominated territory and possession but couldn’t turn that into points, we also tired in the last 15mins, as such we were vulnerable to throwing a game we dominated away. Amost happened against Leinster and Clermot, it did happen against Ospreys. Since christmas I am glad to see we have been much more clinical, and can turn that pressure into points. Its shaping up to be a good season.
That was a very strong Cardiff side with 13 internationals and some very good players, yet Ulster made it look easy. The ones in Ireland camp really showed they should have had more Ireland caps by now, Balacoune, Hume, Timoney all had great games and on the scoresheet also Henderson was very good. Conway has been playing well and has a good all round skill set, but Balacoune has been in better and there isn’t a weakness in his game either, apart from experience, I’m not sure why Balacoune isnt in the right wing. Ulster normally weaken in the last 15, but with the bench last night actually finished stronger. Really dont think Leinster will be looking forward to next weekend, which will be strange for them.
At least get the score right, it was 48 – 12