Ulster 13 - 25 Glasgow: Glasgow go to top of league with excellent win at Ulster

Published on Friday 4 December 2009 23:13

GLASGOW played the filthy Belfast weather beautifully last night to record an excellent away win against a good Ulster team, putting them top of the Magners League. Dan Parks was the stand out figure in a game played in atrocious conditions, scoring 20 points in a man-of-the-match performance. Parks is now only five points short of 1000 in Magners League rugby.

Glasgow, playing into the elements, opened the game strongly. With the game not even a minute old scrum-half Mark McMillan picked broke around a ruck on the half way line. With only the last line of the defence to beat McMillan lost his footing on the slippery turf and was swallowed up the Ulster defence.

It looked like a night made for kicking expert and who better than Dan Parks. He showed all his experience to drill the ball from 22 to 22 low beneath the wind to set up a great attacking platform for Glasgow after only five minutes. From this field position Glasgow won a penalty when Ulster dropped a scrum. What would have been an easy kick on another night, just outside the 22 and to the left of the posts, was a tricky proposition but Parks kept the ball low converted.

From the resulting kick-off, Kelly Brown fielded the ball and stormed into the Ulster half, he found John Barclay on his shoulder who surged further. From the breakdown, McMillan quickly fed to Parks whose cross kick was almost collected by wing Alex Dunbar. This danger was cleared by Ulster but Glasgow were on the attack again minutes later. No8 Richie Vernon exploded up the right wing and over halfway and found wing Thom Evans in support with clear space ahead of him. A try seemed on the cards but Simon Danielli had other ideas and caught Evans five metres short of the line. Ulster came in from offside to kill the attack giving Parks another shot at the posts. Parks missed this time.

Having been dominated for the opening 10 minutes of the game Ulster now took control of the ball. Glasgow pulled down a promising attacking maul to give away a penalty which stand-off Ian Humphreys converted.

Three minutes later Glasgow gave away the first of a series of scrum penalties, loose-head Jon Welsh being the repeat offender. Humphreys missed this attempt but was on target soon after with a penalty after Glasgow were caught handling in the ruck. With the score 6 -3 in Ulster's favour and having been in the back foot for 15 minutes Glasgow now took the play to Ulster. From a scrum 10 metres from the Ulster line, Vernon carried the ball with intent towards the Ulster line. After another couple of phases Moray Low rumbled for the line but knocked on with the line at his mercy.

A further blow to Glasgow hopes came five minutes before half time when James Jones eventually lost patience with loose-head prop Welsh and showed him the yellow card. Ulster kicked the penalty to touch and tried to roll the maul over the Glasgow line but were illegally stopped. With Glasgow a man down Ulster opted for the scrum which Glasgow held. A few phases later though they were behind the posts after Ulster and Ireland loose-head powered over the line from close range.Humphries converted to put Ulster ominously ahead 13-3.

Glasgow finished the half however on the up with a superb long range penalty from Parks just inside the Ulster half into the wind.

Now playing with the wind, Glasgow opened the second in the best possible fashion with two long range quick fire penalties to narrow the deficit to one point. It was now Ulster who struggled and were on the backfoot and when Jones penalised them for handling on the ground Parks slotted his easiest penalty of the night to give Glasgow the lead in a game that seemed to be slipping away from them minutes before half time.

Glasgow then had to defend from a ferocious series of Ulster drives for the line as they sought to extend their winning run at Ravenhill to four games. Glasgow were up for it though and repelled the Ulstermen, one driving hit by No8 Vernon on scrum half Paul Marshall particularly memorable. Glasgow cleared their lines and were next on the scoreboard through Parks, his sixth penalty, after referee Jones took exceptions to comments from Ulster lock Dan Tuohy.

With 10 minutes to go Glasgow put the game beyond Ulster with Parks again key. When the veteran stand-off drove the ball high into the air the Ulster defence could not field it. Glasgow managed to regather and move the ball right into the arms of wing Thom Evans who slid over into the corner from five yards out. Parks converted.