Tries from Ruan Pienaar and Darren Cave - backed up by sheer stubborn resistance as they defended their lead with 13 men in the closing minutes – saw Ulster leave Murrayfield tonight with a hard-fought win over Alan Solomons’ Edinburgh.
While the victory may well prove vital in the quest for a top-four Guinness Pro12 finish, the red card picked up by Stuart McCloskey and an injury sustained by Iain Henderson will leave Neil Doak’s men with a bitter taste in their mouths as they travel back to Belfast.
Returns to starting action for both Henderson and McCloskey were the only selection changes from the first XV which put six tries past Benetton Treviso last week, with the lock coming straight back into the side after his Six Nations appearance against France, and the centre – a scoring replacement against Treviso – wearing Number 12 in place of Luke Marshall.
Elsewhere, Ulster lined up with Louis Ludik at full-back, Craig Gilroy and Michael Allen – both scorers last week against the Italians – on the wings, Cave partnering McCloskey in the centre, and the half-back tandem of Ian Humphreys and Pienaar.
Among the forwards, props Callum Black and Wiehahn Herbst and hooker Rob Herring all retained their front row berths, while Franco van der Merwe teamed with Henderson in the second row for the very first time. The back row also went unchanged, with captain Roger Wilson and the increasingly influential Mike McComish either side of Number Eight Nick Williams.
The sparsely-populated national stadium was offered little in terms of spectacle in the first period, with Ulster controlling much of the ball but rarely threatening with it, while errors and poor kicking combined to frustrate much of the game’s fluency.
Early possession for Ulster generated little real threat, and the visitors’ lack of ruthlessness was punished on eight minutes in the very first Edinburgh attack. A strong aerial take from Dougie Fife at the expense of Allen let loose prop Neil Cochrane, whose marauding run set up Phil Burleigh to ground in the corner despite Pienaar’s attempts to drag the centre into touch before he hit the whitewash.
Ulster were back on terms within five minutes when, after Tom Heathcote’s conversion had sailed wide, Pienaar stretched over from close range after good recycling from Cave and strong ball-carrying from Henderson had taken the lock to within a metre of the try-line before he was brought to ground.
Pienaar’s conversion was followed by four penalty attempts from the erratic Heathcote, two of which hit the target to establish a four-point lead as the clock reached the half-hour mark. The goal-kickers then traded penalties before a somewhat lacklustre half for Ulster came to its end.
Half-Time Score Edinburgh 14 Ulster 10
Another errant Heathcote penalty early in the second half made sure the visitors stayed within touching distance, and as Ulster eschewed three points with a penalty to touch on 47 minutes, good ground made off the lineout by McCloskey earned another penalty even closer to the posts, which Pienaar this time elected to kick for goal.
With Ulster tails now up, successive offloads from Henderson and Williams on the verge of the ‘22’ created the space for Cave to burst through for his eighth try of the season, converted by Pienaar for a six-point lead.
Two events then followed in quick succession to make the Ulster task all the more difficult, as Henderson hobbled off to be replaced by Lewis Stevenson, then McCloskey saw himself red-carded for a tackle on Hamish Watson deemed dangerous by referee Leighton Hodges, as the youngster lifted then tipped the flanker in the air at the back of a ruck.
Edinburgh edged their way closer on 65 minutes courtesy of a Heathcote penalty, and, although the out-half missed his chance to equalise four minutes later, Ulster were soon down to 13 men with van der Merwe sent to the bin for taking the man out in the air at the lineout.
Heavily depleted now, Ulster wisely chose not to contest the subsequent lineout, deploying all their manpower in the defence of the Edinburgh charge, and eventually snatching possession back for Pienaar to clear from behind his own line and snuff out Edinburgh’s last attack.
Seeing out the game with a scrum on half-way, Ulster ran off relieved to secure four valuable away points which reinstate them as joint-leaders on 48 points with Glasgow, although the Warriors, as well as fourth- and fifth placed Munster and Ospreys, are still to play over the course of the weekend.
Next up for Ulster will be the Scarlets at the Kingspan Stadium on Friday 27 February in Round 16.
Full-Time Score Edinburgh 17 Ulster 20
Edinburgh (15 – 9) J Cuthbert; D Fife, S Beard, P Burleigh, T Visser; T Heathcote, G Hart (1 – 8) R Sutherland, N Cochrane, WP Nel, A Bresler, B Toolis, R Grant, H Watson, M Coman (c)
Replacements (16 – 22) J Hilterbrand, G Shiells, J Andress, O Atkins, H Blake, J Te Rure, A Strauss
Ulster (15 – 9) L Ludik; C Gilroy, D Cave, S McCloskey, M Allen; I Humphreys, R Pienaar (1 – 8) C Black, R Herring, W Herbst, I Henderson, F van der Merwe, R Wilson (c), M McComish, N Williams
Replacements (16 – 23) J Andrew, A Warwick, B Ross, L Stevenson, C Ross, P Marshall, L Marshall, P Nelson