Ulster stretch their lead
Ulster 32 Borders 8
A bonus point win over bottom of the table Borders allowed Ulster to stretch their lead at the top of the Magners League to 10 points over nearest challengers Llanelli, who host Munster on Sunday.
Maximum points were the perfect way for Mark McCall’s side to sign off the first segment of games – they now take a break for the autumn internationals before returning to action in December.
However, a much-weakened Ulster outfit – six players were unavailable because of Ireland duty – struggled to impose themselves on Borders side who were also widely changed, until they steadied the ship and pulled away in the second half.
The first 40 minutes were littered with errors from both sides, but the Borders looked far sharper than a fairly leaden-footed Ulster.
They made an almost immediate impact when prop Ryan Grant knocked on near the Ulster line after a great break from Calum MacRae.
But the mistakes continued to mar the contest. They followed this up with a long-range drop goal attempt from Nick De Luca that barely got off the ground and then, after 12 minutes, David Humphreys was penalised for holding on the deck for MacRae to see his 40-metre penalty attempt sail wide.
Two minutes later, though, the visitors finally made the breakthrough they deserved when a blindside break by Ben MacDougall and some swift handling saw MacRae put winger Simon Danielli in at the right corner. MacRae was wide with the conversion but Borders had at least troubled the scoreboard.
Humphreys was then wide with a penalty before getting Ulster off the mark with another attempt, after 22 minutes, following the sin binning of Borders hooker Steve Scott for what appeared to be dissent.
That was as good as it got for the home side, though, as Borders deservedly led 5-3 at the turnaround.
Humphreys put Ulster into a single point lead with an early penalty, which took his Magners League haul for the season to 101 points, before what proved to be the game’s turning point arrived when MacDougall was binned for again for what may have been either dissent or for an input into an apparent block on Andrew Maxwell.
Ulster kicked the penalty to the corner and, from the lineout, Kieron Dawson powered over. Humphreys’ conversion hit an upright and bounced out, but Ulster now led 11-5.
Borders did claw back three points with a MacRae penalty but Ulster turned the screw by scoring again, while Borders were down to 14 men, when Kieran Campbell easily broke through after a lineout near the visitors’ line.
Humphreys did the needful and Ulster now led 18-8.
The remainder of the game saw Ulster push for more scores and, at the death, they got two tries to grab a bonus point.
Prop Justin Fitzpatrick barged over after 70 minutes and then, in the move of the game, Paul Steinmetz made the line in injury time. Humphreys converted both tries.
