ISUZU SOUTHERN KINGS 17 ULSTER 42

Ulster’s mini-tour of South Africa came to a winning end as Dan McFarland’s men exorcised the ghosts of last week’s battering in Bloemfontein with a comprehensive six-try defeat of the Isuzu Southern Kings in Port Elizabeth. Tries from John Cooney, Luke Marshall, Rob Herring and Matt Faddes sewed up the bonus point within half an hour, before a second Cooney score and a Sean Reidy effort put the visitors out of sight, with the returning Marcell Coetzee putting in an explosive performance at the base of the pack. Coetzee, Stuart McCloskey, Louis Ludik, Billy Burns and Alan O’Connor all returned to the starting XV as McFarland named a strong side to take on the Kings in Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. Coetzee lined up at Number Eight between flankers Matthew Rea and Reidy for his first start of the season after picking up an ankle injury on international duty with South Africa, while the only other change in the pack saw O’Connor replace Kieran Treadwell to partner Sam Carter in the second row. The front row of props Eric O’Sullivan and Tom O’Toole and hooker Herring remained unchanged. Among the backs Faddes retained his place at full-back, with Craig Gilroy and Ludik on the wings, McCloskey partnering Marshall in the centre, and Burns at out-half with Cooney at scrum-half. Good carrying from McCloskey, Carter and Herring in Ulster’s very first attack gave the visitors the perfect start, with Cooney darting over within 120 seconds after his skipper had scooped the ball backwards from a ruck inside the Kings’ ‘22’. Cooney converted his own try before the Kings had the chance to show some attacking flair of their own, soon forcing a penalty for Demetri Catrakilis after Marshall had somewhat harshly been pulled up for a high tackle. Undeterred, Ulster responded with two tries in quick succession. Marshall made it all look very simple on 14 minutes, exploiting a huge gap in the Kings rearguard off Burns’s pass with O’Toole’s decoy run outfoxing the South Africans much too easily. The centre was also at the heart of the third try three minutes later, his run from deep and patiently-timed pass finding Ludik before good hands from O’Connor put Herring in for another simple score. Cooney’s brace of conversions took Ulster up to 21 points at the end of the first quarter, but the Kings refused to let their heads drop and five minutes of good possession should have been rewarded from a rolling maul, only for flanker Tienie Burger to knock on within the melee as it trundled toward the line. A loose pass in midfield got Kings in hot water on the half-hour mark, and once the Ulster forwards had torn up the turf with both Rea and Reidy making pacy progress up the field, an inch-perfect Burns kick to the right-hand corner flag found both Faddes and Gilroy queuing up, the full-back just beating his winger to the ball to dot down the bonus-point try. Try number five on 32 minutes was all about Coetzee, who broke a tackle on half-way then showed great sleight of hand to dummy his way out of the next challenge before supplying Cooney, who powered to the line for his second of the day. To their credit, the Kings were able to steady the ship in the closing minutes of the first half, when centre Tertius Kruger benefitted from an Ulster pack decimated by a congested ruck to glide past Burns and touch down his side’s first try just before the break. Half-Time Score Southern Kings 10 Ulster 35 An early second-half TMO check for a high hand-off by Elrigh Louw in the face of McCloskey ended with no action taken, but the centre was soon limping off with a knock, replaced by James Hume. Unfazed by the 25-point gap on the scoreboard, Kings pressed and pressed for a good 10 minutes, but a superhuman effort from the Ulster defence kept successive rolling mauls at bay until a Hume turnover then a broken bind in the scrum allowed Burns to clear his lines. Ulster got a lucky break in the next phase of play, winger Courtney Winnar pulling his hamstring – and losing the ball – as he accelerated into open space after picking out an interception of Marshall’s pass on half-way. No such misfortune befell Reidy in Ulster’s next attack, however, as he rumbled over from the rolling maul with the help of his fellow forwards for try number six. Louw came close to grabbing a second consolation on 67 minutes, just grounding centimetres over the dead-ball line, but with replacement prop Adam McBurney sin-binned for a high tackle after multiple Ulster infringements, second row Aston Fortuin got over in the left-hand corner – once again with TMO intervention required before the score was confirmed. Kings closed out the game on the offensive, full-back Masixole Banda denied a last-minute try for a double movement in a final example of the lack of clinical edge which had eluded them for the majority of the game. Ulster return home with six points in the bag from their South African escapades, and two weeks to prepare for the Cardiff Blues who come to the Kingspan Stadium on Friday 25 October. Full-Time Score Southern Kings 17 Ulster 42 Southern Kings (15 – 9) Masixole Banda; Josiah Twum-Boafo, Tertius Kruger, JT Jackson, Courtney Winnar; Demetri Catrakilis, Stefan Ungerer (1 – 8) Juan Schoeman, Alandre van Rooyen, Rossouw De Klerk, Jerry Sexton, Aston Fortuin, Lusanda Badiyana (c), Tienie Burger, Ruan Lerm Replacements (16 – 23) Jacques Du Toit, Alulutho Tshakweni, Pieter Scholtz, John-Charles Astle, Bobby de Wee, Josh Allderman, Elrigh Louw Ulster (15 – 9) Matt Faddes; Craig Gilroy, Luke Marshall, Stuart McCloskey, Louis Ludik; Billy Burns, John Cooney (1 – 8) Eric O’Sullivan, Rob Herring (c), Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Sam Carter, Matthew Rea, Sean Reidy, Marcell Coetzee Replacements (16 – 23) Adam McBurney, Kyle McCall, Ross Kane, Kieran Treadwell, Greg Jones, David Shanahan, Angus Curtis, James Hume