On Saturday evening, before a sellout crowd at Kingspan Stadium, Ulster faced arch-rivals Leinster in a crucial United Rugby Championship game. Earlier game results meant that it was a must win game for Ulster to maintain a top 8 spot for the play offs and a top 7 spot for European Champions Cup, next season.
Ulster meant business from kick off, camping in the Leinster 22. Early on, Mike Lowry had 2 tries chalked out, after consultation with the TMO, before Rob Herring grabbed a try, at the base of a driving maul. John Cooney‘s conversion put Ulster 7-0 up, after 13 minutes.
Ulster had the best of the first 25 minutes but couldn’t add to their score.
Slowly Leinster turned on the pressure. An attempted Billy Burns clearance was charged down by Will Conners, who fed the ball to Charlie Ngatai to run in unopposed. Harry Byrne converted to level the score, after 28 minutes.
Only a minute later Hugo Keenan passed the ball inside to Cormac Foley to sprint in to score under the posts. Byrne’s conversion had Leinster 14-10 up.
A 32nd minute Cooney penalty goal pulled Ulster back to 10-14 at the break.
An early 2nd half penalty goal by Cooney brought Ulster up to 13-14 after 43 minutes.
Relentless pressure from Leinster saw Michael Alaalatoa drive over from close range on 53 minutes. Byrne’s conversion had Leinster leading 21-13.
Leinster continued to press a scrambling Ulster defence. With Leinster looking to have an overlap, Jacob Stockdale intercepted a Byrne pass to race clear from 70 metres to score in the corner. Cooney inch perfect conversion brought Ulster up to 20-21 on 57 minutes.
Determined Ulster defence kept Leinster at bay, but Ulster’s attacks were restricted to outside the Leinster 22. In the 79th minute Ulster gained a penalty, just short of the halfway line. Cooney completed a perfect night from the kicking tee, when he sent the ball between the posts, to send the large crowd wild.
Ulster ran the clock down in the remaining moments, before kicking the ball dead.
The 23-21 victory leaves Ulster in 6th place in the URC table with one game remaining against Munster, at Thomond Park.
