Cooney’s boot hands McFarland a positive start to life up north

A LAST-MINUTE penalty from scrum-half John Cooney secured Ulster a 15-13 win over the Scarlets at the Kingspan Stadium.

Cooney nailed the vital kick after being tackled without the ball by David Bulbring.

Cooney kicked all of the province’s 15 points on new Ulster head coach Dan McFarland’s first competitive game in charge.

The only try of the game was scored by Scarlets’ Rhys Patchell, with their other points coming from Patchell’s conversion and two penalties by Dan Jones.

The visitors scored after just six minutes when Patchell broke John Cooney’s tackle to cross, and he converted his own score.

Cooney registered Ulster’s first points with a 12th-minute penalty. The Scarlets’ lead was cut to a point thanks to Cooney’s second, after a high tackle on Craig Gilroy. They then built some phases which led to another penalty which Cooney converted to nudge Ulster into a 9-7 lead at the break.

The second half opened with Ken Owens having a score ruled out by the TMO, before Jones kicked the Scarlets into a 10-9 lead. That lasted just five minutes as Cooney kicked his fourth but shortly after, the Scarlets snatched the lead again with Jones again the on target.

Cooney missed a 76th minute before the scrum-half calmly slotted the winner.

ULSTER: Addison (Kernohan 54); Gilroy, Cave, McCloskey, Speight; Burns, Cooney; Warwick (O’Sullivan 54), Andrew (McBurne 54), O’Toole (Kane 19), O’Connor, Henderson (Treadwell 64), Coetzee (Henry 54), Reidy, Timoney. scorers: Pens: Cooney 5.

sCarlets: Blommetjies; Prydie, Hughes, Fonotia, Evans (Nicholas 58); Patchell (Jones 48), Hidalgo-Clyne (G Davies 61); Evans, Owens (Elias 58), Kruger (Gardiner 72), Bulbring, Cummins (Davis 72), Thomson, J Davies, Macleod (Kennedy 65).

scorers: Try: Patchell: Con: Patchell. Pens: Jones 2.

referee: Marius Mitrea (Romania).