A steady but uninspiring game from Ulster was enough to see them through 20 – 10 against Conference A rivals Cheetahs at Ravenhill on Saturday evening.
Bill Johnston added 10 points, from the boot, to tries from Tom O’Toole and Robert Balocoune leaving Ulster on a run of 21 home games without defeat.
The match was probably most noteworthy for it being the competitive return of former Ulster talisman Ruan Pienaar to Ravenhill who was welcomed warmly by the crowd as he ran out.
However, they were soon cheering the home team over the line as a break from James Hume ended with O’Toole wriggling over for the opening try, seven minutes in. Johnston added the conversion and Ulster led 7 – 0.
The rest of the half was fairly uneventful the only other scoring chances being a Johnston penalty five minutes from the break which was cancelled almost immediately by a 38th minute effort from Pienaar to leave the score at 10 – 3 as the teams changed ends.
Ulster applied pressure at the start of the second half and Cheetahs hooker Wilmar Arnoldi was sent to the bin for pulling down a maul. quick thinking from Johnston saw Ulster reap rewards almost immediately as his cross field kick was gathered by Baloucoune for a try out wide.
Johnston landed the conversion from out wide and he stepped up before the end of the third quarter to knock over his second penalty and give Ulster a 20 – 7 lead on the hour mark.
The final quarter saw Sintu Manjezi intercept a Jonny Stewart pass and his break ended with full-back Clayton Bloometjies scoring out on the right, Pienaar slotting the extras with just over 10 minutes remaining.
The low key match ended without further incident and Ulster held on for a 20 – 10 win to maintain their second place standing in Conference A.
ULSTER: Michael Lowry, Robert Baloucoune, Luke Marshall, James Hume, Louis Ludik, Bill Johnston, Dave Shanahan, Eric O’Sullivan, Adam McBurney, Marty Moore, Alan O’Connor, Kieran Treadwell, Nick Timoney, Jordi Murphy, Marcell Coetzee. Replacements: John Andrew, Andrew Warwick, Tom O’Toole, David O’Connor, Sean Reidy, Jonny Stewart, Stewart Moore, Craig Gilroy.
CHEETAHS: Clayton Blommetjies, Rhyno Smith, William Small-Smith, BJ van Rensburg, Craig Barry, Tian Schoeman, Ruan Pienaar, Boan Venter, Wilmar Arnoldi, Luan de Bruin, Sintu Manjezi, Walt Steenkamp, Chris Massyn, Junior Pokomela, Jasper Wiese. Replacements: Joseph Dweba, Charles Marais, Aranos Coetzee, JP du Preez, Aidon Davis, Tian Meyer, Louis Fouche, Chris Smit
