Emirates Lions 37 Ulster 39
Ulster were well-acquainted with the heartache of losing tight tussles in South Africa, suffering that fate in two of three matches last season, so it was heartening for head coach Dan McFarland and his players that a new campaign has brought with it a change in narrative.
The Irish province survived a dormant second quarter in game management terms and a nerve-shredding conclusion as the fast-finishing Lions scored 14 points and came within a whisker of chasing down the visitors.
Ulster replacement scrumhalf Nathan Doak’s penalty on 74 minutes, inserted between two converted Lions tries provided the slender buffer on the scoreboard that the visitors managed to preserve until the final whistle.
There was plenty to admire in the collective character of Ulster’s performance, embellished by a few notable individual contributions, exemplified by man of the match Michael Lowry, Duane Vermeulen, Alan O’Connor and Tom O’Toole, that allowed them to defy the 33-degree heat, the lung burning altitude of Bloemfontein to score five tries, matching the tally of their hosts.
Three of those came in a 10-minute period either side of halftime as Lions centre Henco van Wyk watched on from the sin bin, having received a yellow card for a deliberate slap down metres from his line.
Any argument about a penalty try was rendered moot because outhalf Billy Burns crossed the Lions’ line in the next sequence of play; indeed, Ulster plundered 19 points while their opponents were a man short and furthermore had turned at 18-15 interval deficit into a 36-18 lead by the 52nd minute.
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Rewinding to the start of the contest, the visitors scored first after less than a minute, the excellent Vermeulen poached possession at a ruck and when Ulster explored the short-side, Robert Baloucoune accelerated between two props and raced away to touch down. John Cooney kicked the conversion and subsequently added a penalty.
The Lions responded with tries from Francke Horn and Emmanuel Tshituka, outhalf Gianni Lombard kicking two penalties and a conversion. Rob Lyttle finished smartly in the corner — Cooney kicked a brilliant touchline conversion — and then Stuart McCloskey, tail gunner at a five-metre lineout, stole possession back to score a try after the Lions had got first touch on the throw.
Hooker Rob Herring scored in more orthodox fashion at the back of a lineout maul, which Doak converted. The Lions perhaps in desperation decided to look for space rather than collisions, a policy that paid out handsomely. Wing Quan Horn, fullback Andries Coetzee and number eight Francke Horn, with his second of the game, all crossed for tries.
Doak’s penalty and Coetzee’s missed penalty to touch were key moments in that fraught end game. Ulster’s head coach McFarland said: “I am really proud of the efforts of the guys. I don’t think many people would appreciate how difficult it is to win in South Africa.
“Sometimes I think it is a little bit overhyped on the altitude side of things, but the heat [33 degrees] is very different for us. The Lions guys are used to that, they play a lot in that heat. It takes a little bit extra for us, but we are prepared for that. We have been in SA a lot and we know it is going to be tough.”
A half-time pep talk sorted out some performance glitches. McFarland continued: “You have to get your stuff right in the first 60 minutes. We didn’t get our physical collisions right in the first half and we didn’t take the Lions through phases when we had the ball in the first half.
“We addressed that at half-time. The lads took a really good attitude into the [second half]. We scored before halftime, which was huge, but we came out with real physicality in defence in the second half.
“We scored a maul try [and another] off ‘a scraps’ play off the back of a lineout. It set us up for the win. As is often the case in South Africa, when it gets to 60 minutes you have large blokes who are extremely tired and little blokes who are very fast and feeling much better, the game opens up.”
Ulster will now return to sea level and where the Sharks await in Durban next weekend.
Scoring sequence
1 min: Baloucoune try, Cooney conversion, 0-7; 7: Lombard penalty, 3-7; 9: Cooney penalty, 3-10; 16: F Horn try, Lombard conversion, 10-10; 26: Lombard penalty, 13-10; 32: Tshituka try, 18-10; 39: Burns try, 18-15. Half-time: 18-15. 41: Lyttle try, Cooney conversion, 18-22; 46: McCloskey try, Cooney conversion, 18-29; 52: Herring try, Doak conversion, 18-36; 61: Coetzee try, 23-36; 65: Q Horn try, Hendrikse conversion, 30-36; 74: Doak penalty, 30-39; 76: F Horn try, Hendrikse conversion, 37-39.
Emirates Lions: A Coetzee; E van der Merwe, H van Wyk, M Louw, Q Horn; G Lombard, S Nohamba; JP Smith, J Visagie, R Dreyer; W Alberts, R Nothnagel (capt); E Tshituka, R Venter, F Horn. Replacements: P-J van Vuren for Alberts halftime; S Sithole for Smith 48 mins; M van den Berg for Nohamba 48 mins; PJ Botha for Visagie 57 mins; R Smith for Dreyer 58 mins; S Sangweni for Venter 58 mins; J Hendrikse for Lombard 58 mins.
Ulster: M Lowry, R Baloucoune, L Marshall, S McCloskey, R Lyttle, B Burns, J Cooney, E O’Sullivan, R Herring, G Milasinovich, A O’Connor (capt), S Carter, D McCann, Marcus Rea, D Vermeulen. Replacements: T O’Toole for Milasinovich (HIA) 26 mins; N Doak for Cooney 50 mins; N Timoney for McCann 50 mins; J Andrew for Herring 58 mins; E McIlroy for Baloucoune 59 mins; C Reid for O’Sullivan 59 mins; C Izuchukwu for Carter 65 mins; S Moore for Marshall 75 mins.
Referee: B Blain (Scotland).
Yellow card: H van Wyk (Lions) 38 mins.
