A kick in the teeth
Edinburgh suffer last-gasp agony as Ulster steal glory in the final seconds
RICHARD COCKERILL last night admitted that Edinburgh had only themselves to blame after they slipped to an agonising late defeat to Ulster in the Pro14 semi-finals.
Edinburgh had led 19-7 heading into the final 20 minutes, but the Irish side staged a stunning comeback at BT Murrayfield.
After Ulster had scored two late tries to level the score at 19-19, replacement fly-half Ian Madigan thumped a long-distance penalty to win it with the last kick of the game.
It had been a thrilling contest, but head coach Cockerill did not spare his players in the aftermath as they blew a chance of reaching the club’s first-ever Pro14 final.
‘I’m pretty gutted, really,’ he said. ‘We got ourselves into a winning position at 19-7 and we weren’t capable of controlling the game and doing the basics well enough to then go on and win.
‘We got what we deserved. In the key moments, some of our guys made some really poor decisions.’
THIS was a game for the ages. An absolute humdinger which was decided, quite literally, by the very last kick of a truly breathless night at BT Murrayfield.
Ulster staged a thrilling comeback, scoring two tries inside the final 20 minutes to fight, scratch and claw their way back from a seemingly hopeless position.
They secured victory thanks to a last-gasp penalty from replacement fly-half Ian Madigan, after Edinburgh’s Mike Willemse had been penalised for a knock-on.
In booming it over from fully 40 metres, that winning kick from Madigan was the first time that Ulster had been ahead throughout the contest. It had been a classic.
Smash and grab, perhaps, but it plunged a sickening dagger into the hearts of Edinburgh and their head coach Richard Cockerill, who looked well on course to reach their first-ever Pro14 final.
The awkward reality for Edinburgh is that they blew it. From a position of considerable command at 19-7 in front, they never managed to put the match to bed.
The joy was Ulster’s. Irish eyes were smiling. After being vanquished in last season’s semifinal against Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun, they returned to Scottish soil and had their revenge.
Dan McFarland’s men will now advance to next weekend’s final, where they will face Irish rivals Leinster, who are chasing a third straight Pro14 crown.
Despite the fact that Ulster had lost both of their two games since the resumption of the Pro14, they would have taken a degree of confidence into this contest.
A trip to the Scottish capital seems to bring out the best in the Irish side, who had won on four of their last six visits to Murrayfield.
But their recent loss of form along with the absence of key players like Iain Henderson, Will Addison, Luke Marshall and Robert Baloucoune saw them go into last night’s clash priced at almost 3-1 by some bookmakers.
In those defeats to Leinster and Connacht over the past fortnight, Ulster had looked a shadow of the side who were flying earlier this season prior to the shutdown.
But there’s a reason why they are in the last eight of the European
Cup, with a quarter-final against Toulouse to look forward to next month. They are a classy outfit on their day — and their big South African No 8 Marcell Coetzee looked like a man on a mission during the early exchanges.
Coetzee’s tigerish work at the breakdown won an early turnover and he was again involved when he made a vital try-saving tackle to thwart Blair Kinghorn.
Restored to somewhere near their full-strength XV following last week’s dead-rubber defeat to Glasgow Warriors, Edinburgh were beginning to find their feet and build some pressure.
After winning a penalty on 14 minutes, their bravery to kick to the corner rather than take the three points yielded a handsome reward.
Ben Toolis rose well to collect Stuart McInally’s throw into the line-out. As the maul rumbled on towards the line, McInally peeled off the back and powered over to score the opening try of the night.
Jaco van der Walt’s attempt at the conversion was narrowly wide, but a 5-0 lead inside the opening quarter of an hour represented the early nerve-settler that Edinburgh craved.
The response from Ulster, though, was immediate as they launched a sustained assault on the try-line.
They were banging on the door, pounding away and probing with every passage of play, but there was no way through before Irish hands eventually knocked it on.
For Edinburgh, the pressure valve had finally been released. They had survived an onslaught on their own try-line without the concession of a single point.
The opening half-hour passed without any further additions to the scoreboard. But the McInally try was fitting reward for Edinburgh’s superiority.
After beginning brightly, Ulster were wasteful. They coughed up possession far too often with some cheap handling errors when they got themselves into promising positions.
They were not able to utilise the lethal finishing prowess of Jacob Stockdale. With 16 tries in 28 caps for Ireland at Test level, he looked like he could be a huge danger man for the visitors.
But Edinburgh kept him fairly well-shackled, typified by an absolutely brilliant tackle and turnover from Darcy Graham — one of the smallest men on the pitch — towards the end of the first half.
It was a brilliant piece of defending. But the Ulster defence held firm, too, and the teams left the field at half-time with Edinburgh just 5-0 ahead.
Ulster were dealt a blow when influential scrum-half John Cooney failed to reappear from the tunnel for the second half.
And their task of trying to get back into the match was made all the more difficult when Edinburgh scored a second try on 47 minutes.
It was not unlike their first of the night in its creation. After winning a penalty, they turned down the offer of three points and Kinghorn pumped the ball down into the corner of the Ulster 22.
Toolis again rose to take the line-out. The difference this time was the way in which Edinburgh were able to build the phases and squeeze Ulster into submission.
It was fly-half Van der Walt who eventually cut them open, spreading the ball wide for pocket rocket Graham to scamper away and scurry over in the corner.
Van der Walt then nailed a terrific conversion from out wide to put Edinburgh 12-0 — but the Irishmen were not intent on lying down. They came roaring back.
On 54 minutes, slick hands from Coetzee and Stuart McCloskey fed the ball to winger Rob Lyttle, who then cut back inside.
Lyttle managed to evade Hamish Watson — no mean feat — with some neat footwork and ran in to score under the posts, with Billy Burns slotting an easy conversion.
Missed tackles from Watson are
as rare as hen’s teeth, but the Edinburgh and Scotland flanker soon made amends just five minutes later.
It was a rampaging run from Watson which carved open the Irish defence, breaking three tackles, before he fed Chris Dean to score on the inside.
Van der Walt again nailed the conversion to put Edinburgh 19-7 ahead going into the final quarter — but Ulster simply refused to admit defeat.
Hooker Rob Herring peeled off the back of a maul and powered over to score from close range on 62 minutes. But Burns missed the conversion to leave the score finely poised at 19-12.
There was now just one converted try separating the teams. It was an enthralling contest. Plenty of mistakes from both teams, but also plenty of quality at various points.
Ulster’s replacement hooker John Andrew then scored on 76 minutes and Madigan’s conversion from out wide set up a nail-biting finish.
With extra-time beckoning, Madigan punished Willemse’s error and thumped the match-winning penalty. The clock was red and there was no time for a response.