NO ASSISTANCE
Warriors can’t help the Edinburgh cause on an off night against Ulster
GLASGOW did no favours for their Scottish compatriots and Ulster remain in the hunt for a spot in the Pro14 quarter-finals as this bonus-point win trimmed the deficit to third-placed Edinburgh in Conference B.
Nick Timoney’s 83rd-minute try sealed the bonus-point victory for Ulster as Warriors fell away in the second-half.
Glasgow and Edinburgh meet next weekend at Murrayfield in the 1872 Cup decider, where a losing bonus point will guarantee third place to Richard Cockerill’s side.
‘We started pretty well and got back to 10-all and I thought we had scored again,’ said Warriors coach Dave Rennie. ‘We had a fair bit of momentum around that time and we weren’t clinical enough.
‘Ulster defended well and then we got back to 16-15, but look, we just lacked a little bit of edge tonight. We had a number of times where we were only pass away form hurting them. For one reason or another the pass wasn’t accurate enough or we didn’t throw the pass.’
With a spot in the semi-finals of the Pro14 and home advantage already secured for that key knock-out clash, it was no surprise to see the coach shuffling his pack and Warriors failed to show their usual cohesion at stages.
With the sun beaming down on the Belfast venue John Cooney kicked Ulster into a 3-0 lead after four minutes.
Then the hosts almost broke clear when Charles Piutau and Jacob Stockdale exchanged passes, but the winger put a foot in touch five yards out. Instead of settling themselves Warriors took the quick lineout, but they failed to bring possession across their own try-line. From the resultant scrum, Cooney was quicker on the run than Callum Gibbins was off the openside and after he scuttled over, Cooney converted for a 10-0 lead.
The loss of Jean Deysel to injury after 16 minutes was a big setback for Ulster and Warriors soon got on the board when Tim Swinson carried well and drew the penalty, which the France bound Finn Russell kicked.
Then poor tackling from Ross Kane and Timoney allowed Fraser Brown to break the line, and after he drew the final man Gibbins was on his shoulder to score under the posts.
Alex Dunbar looked to have bagged a second try, but his stretch for the line was judged just short.
Cooney would not emerge for the second half due to a head injury assessment, but before then he slotted two penalties to give Ulster a 16-10 lead.
But the hosts were slow out of the blocks and Gibbins dashed across the try-line on the back of a maul. Russell’s conversion hit back off the post.
That was as close as Warriors got. Timoney crashed over in the corner following a strong win and offload from McCloskey, while Jonny McPhillips slotted the sideline conversion. And Sean Reidy rounded off some excellent pressure rugby to score Ulster’s third try.
McPhillips’s penalty extended the lead and, in the third minute of added time, Timoney barged over in the corner.