Match report: Glasgow 17 - 9 Ulster

GLASGOW held their nerve to seal a sixth league win – and fifth in a row – on their return to the RaboDirect Pro12 and push themselves top of the table, at least until the weekend’s other matches.

They put their supporters through the mincer on a horribly cold and wet night at Firhill with a performance that promised much but delivered precious little as errors, indiscipline and the refereeing of Italian official Stefano Penne combined to disrupt any remote sense of flow.

After a largely forgettable match, the Warriors took a grip of the final ten minutes to score the game’s only try, with Henry Pyrgos, Duncan Weir, Troy Nathan and David Lemi the key men before Nathan touched down, and then seal the points and deny Ulster a bonus point with a Weir drop-goal three minutes from time.

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Glasgow coach Sean Lineen said: “It wasn’t a great game, but I just told the boys that it’s all about winning.

“I’m delighted because this is a tough league, and Ulster are a very physical team, and we showed real determination to stick in there. I was delighted for Troy getting his try, Duncan with the drop-goal that put us out of sight and glad that David Lemi got through his first game without getting frost-bite.”

Samoan Lemi could hardly have had a more testing debut just a couple of weeks after leaving the 36C temperatures of the South Seas, and after claiming a high ball and kicking it straight to Ulster he was duly welcomed to Glasgow with the words of a Firhill supporter: “What? Are we not kicking for touch this week Glasgow?”

Lemi had few chances to show his blistering pace, spending most of his first game defending and kicking.

Glasgow opened the scoring just five minutes into the game when Ulster’s Scotland wing Simon Danielli lost the ball on the ground in his own 22 and Glasgow pressure brought a penalty which Weir slotted.

Ulster’s Andy Kyriacou made his presence felt with a late charge on Federico Arambaru, but Penne began to irk the home support with a succession of questionable decisions against a Glasgow pack that seemed to be in control.

Ulster came closest to a try after 17 minutes when, from a turnover on their 22, following a promising Glasgow attack, Ireland Test star Andrew Trimble broke 60 metres downfield before feeding Danielli on the left flank, but Glasgow scrum-half Henry Pyrgos superbly tracked him and brought the Scotland winger crashing to the ground.

Then the rains came and if the players believed the wind and biting cold was a problem they suddenly had a new weather feature to battle. Ulster did level through an Ian Humphreys’ penalty, but Chris Fusaro came on as a brief blood replacement for Ryan Wilson and the flanker, made an instant impact, breaking off a lineout and being tackled high by Kyriacou to invoke a penalty which Weir converted.

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The stand-off’s trademark two-step approach was back just two minutes later when he superbly bisected the uprights through the rain from the right touchline, after some crossing in a lineout, to put the hosts 9-3 up, and though Humphreys missed a chance at the end of the first half, another penalty against the Glasgow pack for driving Ulster off their own scrum handed Humphreys an early second-half opportunity and he kicked that one.

Glasgow enjoyed the lion’s share of ball with a dominant lineout and solid scrum, and they had the measure of Ulster’s attack, but their failure to maintain possession through phases, combined with indiscipline, the referee’s interpretation and Ulster’s scragging defence, was their undoing.

A knock-on by Lemi picked up by Graeme Morrison let Humphreys level the scores with a third penalty, and we started to hear the ‘Stand Up for the Ulstermen’ chants.

Lineen responded by sending on Chris Cusiter to bring some much-needed direction and cohesion, but the scrum-half was running off to the treatment room within minutes with a head wound and never returned.

Still Glasgow’s defence was sound with fine work at a ruck by Tom Ryder killing stone dead the first Ulster attack to threaten the home 22. Richie Gray, Moray Low and Fusaro were all sent from the Warriors bench, with 18 minutes remaining, but Weir then sliced a penalty to touch dead and was pleased to see a Humphreys penalty from the next phase fade past the Glasgow posts.

The Ulster fly-half missed for a third time, from the right-hand side, after another refereeing decision that infuriated Warriors skipper Al Kellock, and just as the game moved into the last ten minutes, Glasgow injected fresh life into the match. Pyrgos launched it with a great kick from inside his own half which Glasgow won back, the forwards drove it on, Weir managed to flip a pass high to Troy Nathan and he exchanged passes with Lemi to expose the Ulster cover and dive into the left-hand corner.

Weir missed the conversion, Glasgow messed up the restart and Penne blew for another unfathomable infringement at a scrum as the game returned to its familiar pattern, but with Barclay, now at No8, leading the Warriors back into the Ulster 22 Weir wrapped up the victory with a cool drop-goal.

The delight of the Firhill crowd showed that all had been forgiven, before they emptied the stadium in record time. Bitter night, but job done and points in the bag, and Glasgow back to winning ways.

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Scorers: Glasgow: Try – Nathan; Pens – Weir 3; Drop-goal – Weir. Ulster: Pens – Humphreys 3.

Glasgow: S Hogg; D Lemi, T Nathan, G Murdoch, F Arambaru; D Weir, H Pyrgos; J Welsh, P McArthur, M Cusack, T Ryder, A Kellock (capt), R Harley, J Barclay, R Wilson. Subs: Fusaro on for Wilson 24-30mins, R Grant for Welsh 40, C Cusiter for Pyrgos 53, Pyrgos for Cusiter 57, Fusaro for Wilson, R Gray for Ryder, M Low for Cusack, all 63.

Ulster: A D’Arcy; A Trimble, D Cave, N Spence, S Danielli; I Humphreys, P Marshall; T Court, A Kyriacou, D Fitzpatrick, J Muller (capt), D Tuohy, R Diack, W Faloon, P Wannenburg. Subs: I Whitten for Danielli 56, A Macklin for Fitzpatrick 63, T Barker for Tuohy, N Brady for Kyriacou, both 70.

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