Cave, playing at inside centre alongside Jared Payne, capitalised on a defensive lapse from the Welshmen early in the second half to land the decisive try, topped up by five points from the boot of Ruan Pienaar. The victory elevates Ulster above tonight’s opponents to second place on 41 points to 40, with Munster still leading the pack on 43 points with a game in hand.
Despite a two-week hiatus for the RBS Six Nations, it had been a busy fortnight at Ravenhill in the lead-up to tonight’s game, with head coach Mark Anscombe extending his contract until summer 2015, and captain Johann Muller announcing his retirement from professional rugby at the end of this season.
With Andrew Trimble, Rory Best and Chris Henry all due to start tomorrow against Wales, and Paddy Jackson and Dan Tuohy on the Irish bench, Anscombe offered Ricky Andrew, Michael Allen, James McKinney, Rob Herring and Sean Doyle a further chance to stake their claims on regular first XV starting berths. Meanwhile Cave, Iain Henderson and Luke Marshall, not retained by Joe Schmidt for Saturday’s fixture, all returned to the Ulster bench.
The Ospreys spent the opening 10 minutes camped in the Ulster half with the monopoly on possession of the ball, but looked destined to come away empty-handed until a chain of half-a-dozen rapid passes five metres from home eliminated the Ulster defensive line and liberated flanker Sam Lewis to dive over. Full-back Sam Davies converted, although Ulster came close to getting back on terms within five minutes, Allen touching down a hair’s breadth from the left touchline only for the TMO replay to show a knock-on in the build-up.
Pienaar’s penalty opened the Ulster account on 22 minutes after the scrum-half had chased down Matthew Morgan to force the infringement, the Welsh out-half illegally attempting to run the ball himself being grounded by the tackle. A weak penalty attempt from Davies on 33 minutes ensured the gap remained at four points, and although Ulster put together a succession of probing runs, with Cave and Craig Gilroy particularly threatening, the visitors resisted impressively until the final minute of the half, eventually conceding a penalty at scrum-time.
Pienaar stepped up just ahead of the 10-metre line, but pulled his kick to the right of the posts to bring an ultimately disappointing first half for the home side to an end.
Half-Time Score Ulster 3 Ospreys 7
As he had threatened in the first half, Cave made a decisive impact in the second period, picking up on the ‘22’ and slaloming his way through some slack Ospreys defending for a try from nowhere on 43 minutes. Pienaar converted from out wide for a slender lead, before half-time entrant Henderson – on for Lewis Stevenson – made his mark with some forceful driving for the line on 53 minutes.
The second row astutely collected a smart charge-down from Pienaar on the ‘22’ and barged his way through to the try-line, but the TMO once again ruled against the award of the try, with Henderson adjudged by referee Nigel Owens not to have fully grounded the ball.
With Luke and Paul Marshall joining fellow replacement Nick Williams in the fray just before the hour mark, Ulster continued to bombard the Ospreys defence from deep, but also needed their wits about them defensively, as Pienaar halted a dangerous central break from Lewis with an aggressive track and tackle on 67 minutes.
The Ospreys continued to turn the screw through a five-metre scrum with eight minutes remaining, but Ulster succeeded in clearing their lines in increasingly boggy conditions underfoot. Two successive steals at Ospreys lineouts then put paid to any danger of a late reversal, with a great late aerial take from Ricky Andrew allowing Ulster to kick to touch.
Next up for Anscombe’s men are Ospreys’ compatriots the Scarlets, due at Ravenhill on Friday 14 February, before a trip to Italy to face Benetton Treviso on Sunday 23 February.
Full-Time Score Ulster 10 Ospreys 7
Ulster (15 – 9) R Andrew; C Gilroy, J Payne, D Cave, M Allen; J McKinney, R Pienaar (1 – 8) T Court, R Herring, J Afoa, J Muller (c), L Stevenson, R Diack, S Doyle, R Wilson
Replacements (16 – 23) N Annett, C Black, R Lutton, I Henderson, N Williams, P Marshall, L Marshall, R Scholes
Ospreys (15 – 9) S Davies; J Hassler, J Spratt (c), A Beck, A Natoga; M Morgan, T Habberfield (1 – 8) D Jones, S Baldwin, A Jarvis, L Peers, P Parker, T Ardron, S Lewis, J Bearman
Replacements (16 – 23) M Dwyer, R Bevington, D Suter, D Baker, M Allen, T Tibaldi, R Fussell, E Walker