Ulster 23 – Cardiff Blues 14

Ulster marked their second home game of the season with a hard-fought win against the Cardiff Blues and four points in the bag in the Guinness PRO14. Tries from Luke Marshall and Billy Burns, with 13 points from the boot of Player of the Match, John Cooney maintained Ulster’s impressive home record. Head Coach, Dan McFarland named a strong Ulster side to face the Cardiff Blues, making five changes from the team that defeated the Isuzu Southern Kings two weeks ago. Fit-again Will Addison made his first appearance for Ulster this season at full-back and was joined by Craig Gilroy and Louis Ludik in the back three. Luke Marshall and James Hume lined up in midfield, while John Cooney and Billy Burns made up the half-back pairing. Burns was also named as captain for the first time in a competitive game. Jack McGrath returned to start at loosehead, along with John Andrew at hooker and Tom O’Toole taking up the tighthead position. Kieran Treadwell returned to join Alan O’Connor in the second row. The starting back row included Matthew Rea and Sean Reidy on the flanks, and Marcell Coetzee at number eight. It was an unfortunate start for Ulster when James Hume made a break but in his offload to Luke Marshall, got injured and had to be replaced by the versatile back, Matt Faddes in the first minute of the game. A solid period of pressure from Ulster and strong carrying followed, but a knock-on by the hosts led to a scrum for the Blues outside their 22-metre line. The attempted clearing kick by fly half, Jarrod Evans was charged down by Sean Reidy who sent Luke Marshall in for Ulster’s first try in the third minute. John Cooney obliged with the conversion. Cardiff’s skipper Nick Williams got caught offside at the ruck, giving Ulster a penalty from a kickable position, where John Cooney made no mistake. Ulster 10-0 Cardiff Blues. In the 19^th minute, after a number of Cardiff infringements and Ulster in a good territorial position, captain Billy Burns spotted a gap in the Cardiff defensive line and dotted down just under the posts, making Cooney’s conversion a dead cert. The greasy ball posed problems for both sides, resulting in a number of loose balls and handling errors throughout the game. The Blues’ blindside, Will Boyde made a break through Ulster’s line and kicked the ball on to what would have been a certain try had it not been for Louis Ludik’s quick thinking and scrambling to prevent the try. Cardiff by this point had been putting a lot of pressure on Ulster. Luke Marshall was sin-binned for not rolling away and for an accumulation of infringements by Ulster when Cardiff were camped in front of their line. Centre, Willis Halaholo almost found a way through but the Ulster defensive wall remained un-breached going into half-time. Half-time score Ulster 17 – 0 Cardiff Blues Marshall’s absence was felt at the start of the second half, as Cardiff wing, Aled Summerhill benefited from a gap in the Ulster channel and scored to the left of Ulster’s posts. A potential forward pass in the lead up to the try was deemed good by the referee. Jarrod Evans was accurate with the conversion. Ulster responded immediately when the Blues’ Jason Harries was pinged for blocking off the restart, giving John Cooney the honours of slotting the penalty over. The second half was a more tightly contested affair, with disjointed periods of play. Cardiff were beneficiaries of a number of penalty decisions by Scottish referee, Mike Adamson. Jarrod Evans gave Cardiff an excellent attacking position, kicking to the corner and giving the visitors a line-out 5 metres out. Quick ball from Cardiff led to them having numbers out wide which sent Will Boyde in for an easy try, converted by Evans. Five minutes later, the Blues were penalised for coming in at the side, and an excellent kick from Billy Burns put Ulster in a favourable position with an attacking line-out.  A Cardiff infringement just in front of their posts made it an easy option for Ulster to go for the kick at goal through John Cooney, extending Ulster’s lead to 9 points. This was ultimately how the score remained until full-time, as neither Ulster nor Cardiff could capitalise any further. In the dying seconds of the game, Ulster were penalised for going offside, but Jarrod Evans’ attempt at the posts went wide. Ulster now have 3 wins out of four, and 15 points in Conference A. Up next is another home game at the Kingspan Stadium versus Zebre on Friday 1 November at 7.35pm. Full-time score Ulster 23 – 14 Cardiff Blues Ulster (15-9) Will Addison, Craig Gilroy, Luke Marshall, James Hume, Louis Ludik, Billy Burns (Capt.), John Cooney; (1-8) Jack McGrath, John Andrew, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Kieran Treadwell, Matthew Rea, Sean Reidy, Marcell Coetzee. Replacements (16-23) Adam McBurney, Eric O’Sullivan, Ross Kane, Sam Carter, Nick Timoney, David Shanahan, Bill Johnston, Matt Faddes. Cardiff Blues (15-9) Matthew Morgan, Jason Harries, Garyn Smith, Willis Halaholo, Aled Summerhill; Jarrod Evans, Lloyd Williams; (1-8) Brad Thyer, Liam Belcher, Scott Andrews, Josh Turnbull, Rory Thornton, Will Boyde, Olly Robinson, Nick Williams (Capt). Replacements (16-23) Kristian Dacey, Corey Domachowski, Keiron Assiratti, Seb Davies, Shane Lewis-Hughes, Lewis Jones, Jason Tovey, Harri Millard.