Barton grabs the glory as Glos leave it so late
THERE were only a Covid-restricted 2,000 at Kingsholm yesterday but they were treated to a classic last-minute victory that many more will claim to have witnessed in years to come.
Replacement George Barton dived in by the posts for the winning score in the 83rd minute after Louis Rees Zammit – with the option of an overlap on both occasions – had twice gone agonisingly close as the clock ran down.
It was wildly exciting – and it must be admitted error strewn fare – as Gloucester, who conceded 24 straight points at one stage after the break finally recovered their composure. It’s been a difficult, unsettling week after the sudden unexplained departure of Danny Cipriani but this will help the club settle again.
It was Gloucester who made the quickest start with a well-taken try for Rees-Zammit after breaks by Harris and Moyle and a delightful long looping pass by Atkinson.
Evans nailed the difficult conversion but Gloucester were soon on the back foot and poor defensive alignment saw Billy Burns trot through for the softest of tries under the posts to level the scores.
Gloucester, with Evans and Chapman looking lively at half-back, were playing some decent rugby though and after a penalty from Evans they stormed the Ulster line with two textbook lineout rumbles.
The first resulted in a yellow card for Rob Herring and the second, less than a minute later, saw Alan O’Connor binned and a penalty try awarded.
There then followed ten minutes of text book rugby from Gloucester on how not to play against 13 men! They gave away needless penalties, allowed unnecessary resets at scrum-time and hoisted unnecessary box kicks when they needed maximum ball in play time.
The result was Ulster beat them 3-0 when they were down to 13 and it would ha ve been 6-0 had John Cooney , ha ving kicked one penalty , not taken so long over a second while a ttempting to r un the clock down that it toppled of f the tee and ther e was no time to try the kick again.
After the br eak it was mayhem with Gloucester initially seeming to tak e charge w hen Atkinson joined a lineout r umble and stole the glory with the try to make it 24-10.
But Gloucester r elaxed just as Ulster finally found their stride . Lo wry sprinted over for a try that owed e verything to g reat work fr om Cooney w ho moments la ter raced in from 70 yard after the ball broke c lear w hen J acob Stockdale had lea pt high and spilt the ball possib ly forward.
Gloucester felt a little aggrieved at that one b ut had themselv es to b lame when they w ent fur ther behind after a delibera te knock on from Rees-Zamitt was cor rectly punished with a penalty try and yellow card.
It was looking g rim for Glos b ut Le wis Ludlo w raised the spirits with a couple of trademar k piledrives and they roared back.
Kyle Moyle would definitely ha ve scor ed had Ethan McIlr oy not inter - vened with another deliberate sla p do wn so that was yet another penalty try bef ore the final drama with Rees Zammit twice going c lose bef ore Barton brought a br eathtaking encounter to a close.