Ulster pull away from Edinburgh

Und e rm ann ed Edinburgh thought they had unbeaten Ulster on upset alert early in the second half of their Guinness PRO14 meeting at BT Murrayfield last night but the gap in resources eventually told on the young Scots.

Down 19-0 after 24 minutes, Edinburgh had rallied to score two tries from young Jack Blain and thought they had a third to take the lead, only for an observant TMO to deny them.

In the end Ulster poured it on in the last 20 minutes with three more tries to give the scoreline a more lopsided look, although there was no question that clearly the better side won.

Ulster were missing just six players to international calls compared to 23 for Edinburgh and it showed too clearly as the unbeaten Irishmen bludgeoned the home side to three early tries.

They showed some flair with good hands and swift running by forwards and backs working to split the Edinburgh defence after just three minutes, centre Stewart Moore scoring under the posts and John Cooney converting.

Edinburgh’s attempts to respond floundered on defensive turnovers and the Ulstermen turned to their driving lineout for two tries in five minutes.

First hooker John Andrew scored as the Edinburgh defensive maul splintered too easily and then Cooney darted in from close range after Edinburgh ’s defence around the maul was too passive.

Edinburgh had barely shown anything but displayed fight three minutes before half-time, Chris Dean and James Johnstone combining to make a gap, the forwards driving it on and then Johnstone’s neat pass to Blain, the 20-year-old fullback running a great line to score his first senior try.

Nathan Chamberlain converted and Edinburgh landed a few more physical blows before the break, driving Ulster off scrum ball, and they struck early in the second half.

They opted not to kick an easy penalty in front of the posts, and were rewarded when they went wide and Eroni’s Sau’s pass out of the tackle allowed Blain to score his second try.

Chamberlain converted and then had a penalty chance from 35 metres and hit the left-hand post.

Jamie Farndale got up to grab the rebound from Ulster hands and score, but was shown to be a yard ahead of the kicker at impact after a TMO check and it was called back.

But a marginal penalty call at a scrum against

Edinburgh allowed Ulster the platform to get their maul working again and Jordi Murphy scored off the back, with a yellow card shown to replacement Bill Mata into the bargain.

And Ulster quickly put the game away with their extra man, springing skipper Sam Carter through the middle from Ian Madigan’s off- load and Cooney finishing it off in support.

Two more lineout drive scores from John Andrew in the final minutes comp le ted U ls ter ’s dominating win.

Edinburgh: Blain; Sau, Johnstone, Dean, Farndale; Chamberlain , Pyrgos (capt); Schoeman, Cherry, Atalifo; Ferreira, Davidson; Bradbury, Crosbie, Miller.

Replacements: Willemse for Cherry 66, Grahamslaw for Schoeman 77, Gamble for Atalifo 69, Hodgson for Ferreira 61, Mata for Miller 50, Boyle for Crosbie 71, Shiel for Pyrgos 69, Coombes for Johnstone 70.

Ulster: Lowry; Faddes, Hume, S Moore, Lyttle; Madigan, Cooney; Warwick, Andrew, M Moore; A O’Connor, Carter (capt); Reidy, Murphy, Coetzee.

Replacements: Sexton for Lyttle 8, Roberts for Andrew 75, McCall for Warwick 49, Milasinovich for M Moore 51, D O’Connor for A O’Connor 62, McCann for Murphy 69, Shanahan for Cooney 69, Johnston for Madigan 70.

Ref: C Evans (WRU)

FIRST TRY: Jack Blain scores for Edinburgh last night.