Trimble pounces for late try to get Ulster out of tight spot

ANDREW TRIMBLE struck two minutes from time to rescue a narrow victory for Ulster over Benetton at Kingspan Stadium last night.

In a game that looked like it might be going against them, Ulster kept going to the bitter end and broke Italian hearts with their late, late try, despite the visitors looking the better side.

Benetton arrived late to the ground after their team bus was involved in a minor collision, meaning they didn’t get a full warm-up.

However, that didn’t stop them starting the better of the two sides and taking an early lead through two penalties from the impressive out-half Tommaso Allan.

But Ulster hit back in the 18th minute when John Cooney broke off the back of a maul and set away Tommy Bowe, who had the pace to go over in the corner for the try.

Cooney added the conversion and a penalty to extend Ulster’s lead, but Allan struck back with a penalty of his own just before half-time and then put over his fourth of the evening just after the restart to reduce arrears to one.

Then the Italians deservedly took the lead as Paul Marshall, on for his 200th Ulster appearance, put up a boxkick that was regathered by debutant Schalk van der Merwe, only for the prop to pass straight to Robert Barbieri who ran it back for the try.

Christian Leali’ifano and Marty Banks exchanged penaltiesasthevisitors continued to dominate proceedings, but ultimately the night would belong to the Ulster men.

Darren Cave took the ball into contact off first phase from a scrum, setting it up for the rampaging Trimble (pictured) who crashed over for the game-winning try that arguably they didn’t even deserve.