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Ulster remain perfect with bonus-point win over Lions
By PA
Two tries from back-rower Nick Timoney ensured Ulster made it four bonus-point wins from four as they defeated the Lions 26-10 at the Kingspan Stadium.
The win allowed the Irish province to return to the top of the United Rugby Championship table with James Hume and Matty Rea also crossing for tries in a hard-fought game which saw Ulster lead 12-10 at half-time.
Ulster had their first score after just three minutes when a short lineout throw to Andy Warwick allowed him to find Timoney, who had peeled around.
Nathan Doak missed the conversion but instead of pushing on, several errors allowed the Lions back in the game and on 17 minutes they worked their way over the line through Stean Pienaar with EW Viljoen converting to put the visitors ahead 7-5.
After 34 minutes Ulster seized back the lead when a multi-phase attack resulted in Hume crossing the line with a man spare after the Irish province had simply worn the Lions’ defence out.
This time Doak converted and Ulster now led 12-7 but the half ended with the Lions closing the gap thanks to Viljoen’s long-range penalty.
After Will Addison was stretchered off early in the second half, following a collision with a Lions player, Ulster had try number three sewn up when a tap and go resulted in Rea being driven over the line with Doak converting again.
Ulster then should have had their bonus point when Tom O’Toole’s pass to Alan O’Connor sent the lock charging for the line only to be held up short with Doak trying to wriggle over when a pass ought to have been thrown.
The bonus point still looked inevitable and came when Timoney dotted down for the second time from a close-in drive with Doak converting.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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