When the dust settles on the BKT United Rugby Championship regular season, this could prove to be a very valuable Ulster win.
A slow, scrappy game ultimately had an explosive ending; Cardiff's Theo Cabangio sprinting into the Ulster corner to score what he thought was a hat-trick try, to seal what we thought was a first Cardiff win in Belfast since 2010.
Moments later, Kingspan Stadium was celebrating an unlikely but vital 19-17 win. As Cardiff were joyous at one end of the pitch, referee Mike Adamson was checking with the score with the TMO. Cabango’s breakaway try came from a spilled Ulster ball deep in the Welsh side’s 22, and the replay showed it came from a deliberate knock-on by Rhys Carre.
The try was chalked off, and Cooney drilled the winning points between the posts to make it 19-17.
It was appropriate that the scrum-half would kick the winning points, his introduction early in the second half put some spark into what had been a lethargic Ulster display, which hadn't been helped by the absence Iain Henderson, Stuart McCloskey, Rob Herring and Steven Kitshoff amongst others.
They trailed for the majority of the game, with a pair of tries for Welsh wing Cabango seeing Cardiff lead 14-6 after 42 minutes.
A poor quality first half had been marred by injuries, with Ulster’s James Hume going off with what looks like a serious knee injury, before Taulupe Faletau’s return from a six-month layoff with a broken arm ended with a recurrence of that issue.
Dave McCann’s try got Ulster back into it midway through the second half, while Cooney added a further penalty to nudge them 16-14 ahead.
Tinus de Beer quickly responded with a penalty for the Welsh to restore their slender advantage, before the mayhem of the final minutes saw Richie Murphy’s side pick up a badly needed win, in their interim coach’s first home game in charge.
The opening 10 minutes were of a poor standard, despite the beautiful spring conditions in Belfast. Twice in the early stages Ulster missed the touchline with penalties, first from Flannery in his own half, before Doak sent a penalty out over the in-goal area from inside the Cardiff 22. Similarly, Cardiff's first foray into the Ulster 22 ended after just two phases after a loose ruck was seized upon by Scott Wilson.
It was the visitors who landed the first blow on 11 minutes, as they earned a lineout on the Ulster 22 following a dominant midfield scrum.
The Welsh side feigned a maul which sucked in the Ulster defence, before quickly moving the ball out to scrum-half Ellis Bevan, and his neat pass back inside to Cabango sent the winger in for the opening try of the game, which was converted by Tinus de Beer to make it 7-0.
The spectacle wasn’t helped by some overly fussy officiating by Adamson at the scrum, which dragged the first half along beyond the opening quarter.
Flannery put some fizz back into the game when he spotted a gap in the Cardiff backfield following a turned over lineout on 22 minutes, and while the province broke towards the Cardiff redzone, Jude Postlethwaite’s grubber to the corner was mopped up by the defence.
The territory gained from that chance eventually led to the first Ulster points of the game on 26 minutes, as Doak kicked a penalty to make it 7-3, after Alex Mann had been penalised for offside. A small bit of afters between the Cardiff flanker and David McCann appeared to put some fire into the home side.
Ulster were starting to gain control of the game, while the penalties against Cardiff racked up. The execution was letting them down though, with Tom Stewart knocking on close to the line, before Dave Ewers was held up by the Cardiff defence, who were scrambling excellently in defence.
Ulster cut the deficit back to a single point on 35 minutes when he slotted a long-range penalty to make it 7-6, after Mann was caught for a no-arms tackle, the seventh penalty against them in a committed but indisciplined 40 minutes.
The half time break halted the small momentum Ulster had gained, and the second half started in scrappy fashion when Billy Burns, on at the break for Jake Flannery, saw his clearance kick blocked down by Cardiff pressure.
They were made to pay for the turnover, as Cardiff worked through a composed series of phases, before a stunning skip-pass from Ben Thomas bypassed the Ulster defence to find Cabango, and the wing skipped by the challenges of Postlethwaite and Stockdale to run in his second try of the evening. De Beer's conversion was a tap-over beneath the posts, as Cardiff moved 14-6 in front after 43 minutes.
Ulster’s task grew larger on 48 minutes when Stockdale was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on, although the yellow card looked harsh with the wing coming quite close to intercepting the loose Cardiff pass.
Murphy went to his bench early, with John Cooney and Tom O’Toole drafted in just after the 50-minute mark, and the Cooney-Burns combination at half-back put some extra purpose into the Ulster attack.
Just before Stockdale’s return from the sin-bin, Ulster finally forced their way over for their opening try. A kickable penalty was turned down in favour of a shot at seven points, and after a clean lineout, they went direct, with a series of pick-and-go efforts ending with McCann driving over for his fifth try of the season.
Cooney’s conversion left the minimum between the sides at 14-13, just as the home side were restored to 15 men.
With a quarter of an hour to play, Ulster finally nudged ahead when Cooney landed a penalty from 40 metres to make it 16-14, after Ethan McIlroy’s linebreak got them into scoring range.
Suddenly there was a new excitement to the game, and Cardiff almost regained the lead instantly when Thomas Young was played into space down the right wing, but the flanker caught just inches from the line by Cormac Izuchukwu, who forced a knock-on with a heroic chasedown.
Eleven minutes from time the Welsh side nudged back in front, as De Beer landed a penalty from 30 metres to make it 17-16, after Postlethwaite was pinged for playing the scrum-half.
It looked like Ulster’s hopes were killed off when a Cardiff breakaway in the final minutes saw Cabango dive over in the corner, but the TMO referral handed Cooney the opportunity to snatch the win with just 90 seconds lefty to play.
Ulster: Will Addison; Mike Lowry, James Hume, Jude Postlethwaite, Jacob Stockdale; Jake Flannery, Nathan Doak; Eric O'Sullivan, Tom Stewart, Scott Wilson; Harry Sheridan, Alan O'Connor (capt); Dave Ewers, Marcus Rea, Dave McCann
Replacements: John Andrew, Andrew Warwick, Tom O’Toole, Cormac Izuchukwu, Greg Jones, John Cooney, Billy Burns, Ethan McIlroy
Cardiff Rugby: Cam Winnett; Josh Adams, Mason Grady, Ben Thomas, Theo Cabango; Tinus de Beer, Ellis Bevan; Corey Domachowski, Liam Belcher (capt), Keiron Assiratti; Ben Donnell, Teddy Williams; Alex Mann, Thomas Young, Taulupe Faletau
Replacements: Rhys Carré, Evan Lloyd, Ciaran Parker, Rory Thornton, Ellis Jenkins, Gonzalo Bertranou, Jacob Beetham
Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU)
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