LATEST IN OUR GREAT SPORTING LIVES AND TIMES SERIES: PAGES 48-49
AFTER Christian Leali’ifano’s last-gasp conversion went wide to leave Ulster with a 32-32 draw against the Dragons last night, a frustrated head coach Jono Gibbes said it would have been an undeserved win had the kick sailed over.
Leading by 12 points late on, Ulster then capitulated as they conceded three late tries.
They did manage to fight back and score in the final seconds through Leali’ifano, only for him to miss his kick.
“We had an opportunity to shut the door on them and not allow their passionate crowd to get into the game but we left the door open and they got themselves into the game,” blasted Gibbes.
“Ultimately they were one kick receive away from being deserved winners.”
Gibbes said: “I thought we’d given ourselves a chance (with the late score) but I’m not sure we deserved it. We hung in there and fought to create an opportunity to win which was pleasing but ultimately we got 15 minutes into the first half and created a lot of positivity but went into their ‘22’ and missed a lineout.”
That was the recurring theme for Gibbes, a former forwards coach with Leinster and Clermont, who raged that his side’s set-piece let them down.
“No matter if the rules get changed around, no matter what area you play in, there are some basic principles you still need to respect,” he said. “They are as true today as they were 100 years ago and that’s your set-piece.
“We had opportunities to close the door on the Dragons but unfortunatelyweleftthedooropen as our malfunctioning lineout gave them access and they scored two lineout drive tries which is absolutely unacceptable.
“It was excellent execution by them but for us it’s not good enough and when we needed the scrum to be stable or when we needed to deny them a way out of their half it didn’t function.
“Throughout the course of the 80 we were second best in key moments around that area.”
While Ulster have moved up to second in Conference B, Edinburgh have closed the gap and Leinster will expect to take the position back from the Kingspan men when they travel to Treviso.
More unexpected dropped points had Gibbes concerned that wasted opportunities will come back to haunt Ulster this season.
“There will be a consequence for those three points and it might not be in May but earlier,” he said. “We’ll have to deal with it but that’s the consequence of not being good enough.”
Ulster women, meanwhile, begin their inter-pro series against Munster tomorrow afternoon at Barban Hill in Dromore (2pm kick-off ).
New coach Derek Suffern will see his side take on Leinster and has named Irish international Larissa Muldoon as his fly-half and captain. Dragons: A O’Brien, A Hewitt, A Warren, J Dixon, J Rosser, G Henson, D Babos, B Harris, L Belcher, L Fairbrother, J Davies, M Screech, A Wainwright, O Griffiths (captain), J Benjamin.
Replacements: E Shipp, G Ellis, S Hobbs (for Harris, 33), R Landman (for Screech, 58), B Roach (for Wainwright, 58), C Davies, A Robson, P Howard.
Ulster: C Piutau, C Gilroy, T Bowe, S McCloskey, L Ludik, C Lealiifano, P Marshall, S van der Merwe, J Andrew, R Kane, A O’Connor, K Treadwell, G Jones, S Reidy, N Timoney.
Replacements: R Best (for Andrew, 51), C Black (for van der Merwe, 52), A Warwick (for Kane, 52), M Dalton (for Treadwell, 73), C Henry (for Jones, 56), J Cooney (for Marshall, 52), P Nelson, A Trimble (for Ludik, 71) ULSTER’S luck finally ran out in Newport last night as they banked three points from a game they should have won, could have lost, but ultimately drew against the Dragons in Rodney Parade.
In control of things and leading by 12 points with less than a quarter of an hour to go, this side’s startling propensity for leaking tries was once again their undoing, as Dragons hit three quick-fire scores that turned the game on its head and had them leading by five with only seconds remaining.
Losing a game that should have been long since sewn up, to their credit the visitors were able to lift themselves from the canvas following the late sucker-punch to score through Christian Leali’ifano with the clock having turned red.
Despite the fresh legs of usual goal-kicker John Cooney now on the field, the Wallaby took on the responsibility for converting his own try, only to see his wouldbe winning kick drift agonisingly wide of the uprights.
Having lived dangerously against the PRO14’s lesser lights in November, the province could hardly have expected to keep winning games when flirting so COMING unstuck at Old Wesley wasn’t part of the plan and after losing by a mere point, Banbridge coach Dan Soper will be seeking an immediate reaction from his squad this weekend when they host bottom team Dolphin.
“Itwastheonethatgotaway,” said Soper, whose side slipped a place to fourth after the defeat on Wesley’s artificial surface at Donnybrook.
“We just left a number of chances out there and we were brazenly with disaster and, despite avoiding defeat, this was very much a case of two valuable league points spurned on a night when Edinburgh cut the gap to the final play-off spot in ConferenceB.
Having struggled at scrum time and in defence, that Ulster were in a position to throw away the win at all was a story in itself,oneauthoredbytheon-song Craig Gilroy who bagged a brace for his first scores of the year.
Dragons had started on the front foot but an early yellow card Jack Dixon, shown after a tip tackle on Louis Ludik, gave very soft in defence. But saying that, we came within a final kick of winning it,” added the Kiwi.
As for taking on Dolphin in the first of their back-to-back games as the AIL hits the halfway point, Soper reckoned that his squad ought to be up for the challenge.
“I would like to think, based onlastweekend’sresult,complacency won’t be an issue,” he said.
“I would hope we get a reaction from the players.”
Selection-wise, Soper will be without injured duo Nick Hayes and Conor Field.
It’s first against second when Ulster a penalty subsequently to be knocked over by Christian Leali’ifano, and 10 minutes up against14men.
Numerical advantages have been wasted all too often by the province of late — notably against Leinster and last week versus Treviso — but this time they made the opposition pay.
With 10 minutes on the clock, Craig Gilroy exploited a missed tackle from Aaron Wainwright to score his first try of the season with soft hands hooker John Andrew helping create the opening.
The scrum though, which had been one of the few positives last Shannon rack up at Ballymacarn Park to meet a Ballynahinch side brimming with confidence after their victory at UCC.
Hinch should be largely unchanged from last Saturday with only Jack Regan missing out while Aaron Hall — who made his senior Ulster debut last week — has a knock and has not been released.
Brian McLaughlin ought to be able to deploy Aaron Cairns, Johnny McPhillips, Peter Browne, Zack McCall, Rory Butler and David Busby.
“It was a fantastic result for us,” said director of rugby Ron- time out, was shaky early on, three free-kicks awarded against the visitors by Marius Mitrea making it tough to establish a platform.
And with Dragons’ forwards taking care of their own basics in a much more effective manner, it was a commanding maul try, finished off by Matthew Screech, and converted by former Wales and Lions ten Gavin Henson, cut the deficit to a point.
With stand-in skipper Ollie Griffiths increasingly prominent, it was the flanker’s burst upfield that saw Henson’s second kick of the day edge them back in front. nie Duncan of the result at UCC. “The guys worked for 80 minutes down in Cork but there is no point in turning up at Ballymacarn and not delivering.”
Struggling Ballymena welcome Old Belvedere to Eaton Park with the Braidmen now down in ninth and badly needing a result against the Dublin side coached by Eddie O’Sullivan.
Ballymena coach Andy Graham has Dave Shanahan, Brett Herron and Adam McBurney released by Ulster.
Div 1B: Ballymena v Old Belvedere, Ballynahinch v Shannon, Banbridge v Dolphin, Naas v Old Wesley, Bohs v UCC
All of a sudden there was only one team in the game.
With their loose forwards winning the back-row battle and giving 17-year-old scrum-half Dan Babos quick ball, Ulster’s defence, their Achilles’ heel all too often this season, was stretched.
Despite committing fewer numbers in the contact area, there was still all sorts of trouble for Les Kiss’s defence when the ball was worked wide, and Dragons got in behind for a second score when Dixon poked the ball through for Ashton Hewitt to touchdown.
Ulster’s forwards would soon