1
Ulster stay alive in dramatic fashion as Bellini sparkles for Zebre
By Rob Lancaster
Ulster maintained their late push to qualify for the Pro14 play-offs with a thrilling 36-15 victory against Glasgow Warriors.
Nick Timoney's last-gasp try - his second of the contest - secured Ulster a crucial bonus point at the Kingspan Stadium, though they will need to do the same again next week against Munster to qualify from Conference B.
Even then, a maximum haul may not be enough. Edinburgh, who face Glasgow in the final round of fixtures, occupy third place and hold a four-point cushion over their nearest rivals.
John Cooney scored 16 points, including grabbing the game's opening try, while Sean Reidy touched down in an impressive result for Ulster against the winners of Conference A.
In Saturday's other fixture, Mattia Bellini scored a hat-trick of tries as Zebre made it back-to-back league wins with a 37-14 triumph over a much-changed Ospreys side.
The Italy international touched down twice in the space of three first-half minutes as Zebre raced out to a 22-0 lead.
Ospreys – who made 13 alterations from the team that lost 8-0 to Ulster last time out – finally got on the scoreboard 30 minutes in, Sam Cross touching down after a quick penalty.
Yet Bellini completed his treble after the hour as the Italian club comfortably held on to record a sixth win in the campaign, making it their best season in the competition.
In other news:
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Stuart Lancaster 'wants out' of Racing 92 and eyeing Euro giants job
3
Henry Arundell lined up for early England homecoming
4
Government provides bleak assessment on the state of the Premiership
5
Latest Comments
It is if he thinks he’s got hold of the ball and there is at least one other player between him and the ball carrier, which is why he has to reach around and over their heads. Not a deliberate action for me.
Go to commentsI understand, but England 30 years ago were a set piece focused kick heavy team not big on using backs.
Same as now.
South African sides from any period will have a big bunch of forwards smashing it up and a first five booting everything in their own half.
NZ until recently rarely if ever scrummed for penalties; the scrum is to attack from, broken play, not structured is what we’re after.
Same as now.
These are ways of playing very ingrained into the culture.
If you were in an English club team and were off to Fiji for a game against a club team you’d never heard of and had no footage of, how would you prepare?
For a forward dominated grind or would you assume they will throw the ball about because they are Fijian?
A Fiji way. An English way.
An Australian way depends on who you’ve scraped together that hasn’t been picked off by AFL or NRL, and that changes from generation to generation a lot of the time.
Actually, maybe that is their style. In fact, yes they have a style.
Nevermind. Fuggit I’ve typed it all out now.
Go to comments