Ulster battled their way a 25-16 win against fellow title contenders Ospreys tonight at Kingspan Stadium, with two-try hero Darren Cave leading the charge in a spirited display
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Franco van der Merwe contributed a try of his own to consign the Welsh outfit - erstwhile sole league leaders - to their first defeat of the domestic season, and elevate Ulster to joint first in the standings on 30 points.
Ulster lined up with all three players released from the Ireland camp - Cave, Stuart Olding and Craig Gilroy - straight back into the starting XV, at fullback, centre and left wing respectively. Louis Ludik continued on the right wing, with Stuart McCloskey partnering Cave in midfield, and the tandem of Paddy Jackson and Paul Marshall retaining their half-back berths.
The pack was set up with Callum Black and Wiehahn Herbst either side of hooker Rob Herring, backed up by Lewis Stevenson and Franco van der Merwe in the second row. Recent recruits Clive Ross and Sean Reidy flanked captain Roger Wilson in the back row, with Nick Williams a notable figure in the replacements bench, hoping to make his 50th appearance in white and red in the course of the game.
Under pounding rain at kick-off Ulster bossed their first scrum and pinched possession at the Ospreys’ lineout, retaining the ball well until the breakthrough came on nine minutes. Cave applied the finishing touch after extracting the ball from a maul less than a metre from the line, but a great burst from Wilson and clever lay-off from Jackson near the corner flag, followed by alert recycling from Ulster as they neared the line, made the try possible.
Jackson converted and Ulster were quickly in the hunt for more points, attained on 19 minutes courtesy once again of the out-half’s boot as the Ospreys were pulled up for coming in at the side.
With the visitors’ lineout misfiring twice more before the half-hour mark, Ulster kept the pressure on, with Jackson adding another penalty in the 31st minute before his opposite number Sam Davies opened his side’s account from distance two minutes later.
A protracted pause for treatment to Ospreys prop Duncan Jones did little to disrupt Ulster’s fluency, as further scrum-time domination from the restart saw the award of three consecutive penalties in their favour, used well by Jackson to bring play deeper and deeper into the Welsh ‘22’. Good mauling from Reidy off the third lineout brought play up to the line, where van der Merwe picked up and drove over for his second try in Ulster colours, unconverted as Jackson’s kick spun just wide in the wind.
Half-Time Score Ulster 18 Ospreys 3
The Ospreys showed just why they started the match as league leaders as early as the third minute of the second half, Number Eight Dan Baker touching down from a maul which outmuscled the Ulster pack for the first time in the encounter, with Davies converting the score.
The visitors went on to enjoy a good 15 minutes’ worth of possession from the restart, but crucially came away with only three further points to show for it, courtesy of a second Davies penalty on the hour mark.
With Williams and Alan O’Connor into the mix at this stage, another Ulster indiscretion allowed Davies to reduce the deficit to two points, and with the result suddenly hanging in the balance, an arm injury to the hitherto influential Jackson saw Ian Humphreys take the field with 15 minutes to go.
The replacement out-half was soon involved, picking up from a surging run through the centre from McCloskey and supplying Cave, who wove past two men before being brought to ground just short of the line. Ulster toiled to recycle and keep the move alive, but obstruction as Cave picked up once more brought the danger to an end.
With the Ospreys soon surrendering possession through some crossing of their own, Ulster put on a final squeeze with three minutes remaining, as van der Merwe and replacement props Andrew Warwick and Declan Fitzpatrick ground out metre after metre to bring the drive within touching distance of the line. As the ball was fished out two metres from the line, Cave was once more on hand to take control and contort himself just over the whitewash for the score.
Humphreys added the cushion of two extra points through the conversion, ensuring the Ospreys left the Kingspan without the consolation of a losing bonus point.
Next up for Ulster is a trip to interprovincial rivals Munster on Friday 28 November, before back-to-back clashes home and away with the Scarlets in rounds three and four of the European Rugby Champions Cup.
Full-Time Score Ulster 25 Ospreys 16
Ulster (15-9) S Olding; L Ludik, D Cave, S McCloskey, C Gilroy; P Jackson, P Marshall (1 – 8) C Black, R Herring, W Herbst, L Stevenson, F van der Merwe, C Ross, S Reidy, R Wilson (c)
Replacements (16-23) J Andrew, A Warwick, D Fitzpatrick, A O’Connor, N Williams, M Heaney, I Humphreys, P Nelson
Ospreys (15-9) D Evans; T Grabham, A Bishop, A Beck, A Natoga; S Davies, M Roberts (1 – 8) D Jones, S Parry, D Arhip, L Peers (c), R Bernardo, J King, S Lewis, D Baker
Replacements (16-23) M Dwyer, M Thomas, C Griffiths, R Thornton, I Boladau, I Jones, T Habberfield, H Dirksen