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Ulster triumph by slim margin in 10-try contest against Benetton
By PA
Ulster made it consecutive home wins in the United Rugby Championship with a thrilling defeat of Benetton at Kingspan Stadium.
The hosts won 38-34, with tries from Tom Stewart, Reuben Crothers, Jacob Stockdale, Will Addison and Cormac Izuchukwu.
The Italians opened the scoring with a well-crafted try in the sixth minute. Michele Lamaro made a big carry and fed winger Rhyno Smith, who quickly offloaded for Tommaso Menoncello to squeeze over in the corner for an unconverted try.
Ulster responded 11 minutes later with their first sortie into the visitors’ 22, scrum-half John Cooney made a line break drawing the defence before putting hooker Stewart clear to go under the posts.
Cooney added the conversion, but Benetton regained the lead in the 24th minute when full-back Jacob Umaga landed a penalty from in front of the posts.
Umaga missed the chance to increase Benetton’s lead when he was off target with a long-range penalty.
The lead changed hands again in the 33rd minute as Ulster got a second try. Cooney again was the architect and although he was stopped short of the line, Crothers picked up from the base of the ruck and barged over from close range.
Winger Stockdale got Ulster’s third try in the final minute of the first half as he won the race to gather Stuart McCloskey’s chip and dot down, Cooney’s conversion gave the hosts a 21-8 lead at the interval.
Umaga got the visitors second try six minutes after the restart, profiting from a mistake in the Ulster defence, although he could not convert his own score.
Ulster got their bonus point try in the 50th minute as centre Addison went over in the corner after the ball was moved quickly across the pitch. Cooney converted.
Benetton got their third try in the 56th minute when replacement Toa Halafihi went over, with Tomas Albornoz converting.
Replacement prop Ivan Nemer ripped the ball off Harry Sheridan on his own try line to claim Benetton’s bonus point, Albornoz converting.
Izuchukwu responded immediately for Ulster, the replacement lock barging over from close range, with Cooney converting.
The Ulster scrum-half added a 73rd-minute penalty before Benetton secured a second match point with a late try from Albornoz, which he converted.
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Latest Comments
Firstly England were terrific for 82 minutes and deserve the plaudits.
Borthwick, though, must be the luckiest coach around .
Had a broken arm not occured Marcus would still be no 10 , had Russell put the kick over and France not dropped the ball , had Lawrence not been injured the scenario would be very different .
England beat the worst team in the northern hemisphere , let’s not get carried away .
The forwards scored 6 of the 10 tries and Mitchell’s was somewhat flukish .
The speed and power of play was the difference and the forwards were unrecognisable from previous games.
Had Marcus had such a ride in his games he too would have been praised for his play .
Ford came on against a poor and beaten team with the score 40 up . Easy peasy. Short memories fail to remember against Nz and Aus , top teams, he lost both games.
The changes were forced on Borthwick , not by natural selection and they have been all for the better.
Let's trust this is the start of bigger things and the excellent squad Borthwick has kick on . No pun intended.
Go to commentsI still think Englands 6 nations was a curates egg, both good and bad in parts, and it’s still far to early to declare that Borthwick and Co have now created a team to take on all comers.
This England sides win ratio against sides ranked above them is still pitifull.
The Autumn will tell us much more.
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