Ulster 21 - 13 Edinburgh: Ulster's late push sticks the knife into Edinburgh's European hopes

ULSTER slammed the door shut on Edinburgh's slim Heineken Cup knock-out qualification hopes last night at a wet and windswept Ravenhill. The Scots battled hard in the second half but left themselves too much to do after a loose opening 40 minutes.

Edinburgh kicked off with the fierce wind at their backs with plans to build a lead in the first half. The wind was so strong that Ulster did not even attempt a kick to touch after they fielded the ball from the kick off, opting to truck the ball upfield instead. They eventually won a penalty further up the pitch after Edinburgh were caught offside.

The visitors then put together the first coherent handling move of the game, their only one of the half, almost cutting through the Ulster defence after a couple of half breaks. French referee Christophe Berdos penalised them again though for holding on to the ball in the tackle. Two minutes later Berdos warned Edinburgh skipper Chris Paterson after they had conceded their third penalty within the opening five minutes. From the resulting line-out after the Ulster penalty kick to touch, Berdos was true to his word and yellow carded Edinburgh tight-head David Young prop for pulling down the maul.

The big Belfast crowd now made themselves heard as Ulster rolled a maul fully 20 yards into the Edinburgh 22. When the ball was recycled left, Ulster appeared to have a man over, but Scotland winger Simon Danielli could not take and gave the pass to full-back Jamie Smith, and he fumbled the ball forward. Edinburgh then just managed to clear the lines from the resulting scrum. Any efforts to establish an attacking platform in Ulster territory were hamstrung by the huge penalty count against the Scots. The home side, to be fair, were playing the conditions very well, regularly opting to run the ball back. The tackle count after 15 minutes was amazingly 51 tackles made by Edinburgh to Ulster's seven.

It was Edinburgh, however, who opened the scoring through Paterson just into the second quarter of the game, with the utility back slotting the straightforward penalty chance from in front of the posts just outside the Ulster 22 . This was scant reward for the province, who had dominated the opening 20 minutes of the match.

Ulster were soon to get their reward, though. After Edinburgh conceded yet another penalty inside the opposition 22, scrum-half Isaac Boss tapped and ran the ball. He broke over the halfway line and into the Edinburgh half. Boss then linked with Ireland internationalists Andrew Trimble and Stephen Ferris before centre Darren Cave cut inside the cover defence to score near the left side five-metre line. Humphreys missed the conversion. Paterson restored Edinburgh's lead just before half-time with his second penalty of the match.

Edinburgh started the second half as Ulster had the first by bashing the ball upfield at close quarters. Berdos, though, was quick to penalise for holding on to the ball in the tackle. Ian Humphreys took the chance to push Ulster ahead again. Edinburgh then took the game to the home side and camped on their line for five minutes and looked likeliest to score next. The ball was turned over, however, and cleared down field by Ulster. Edinburgh conceded the scrum and Ulster now started to build the pressure.

This yielded points when Trimble who looked lively all night made a break into the Edinburgh 22. From the breakdown the ball was picked up by Boss who powered through a gaping hole in the defence. Humphreys converted to put his side 15-6 ahead.

To their credit though, Edinburgh weren't disheartened by this and renewed their efforts. Ulster's British and Irish Lion Ferris was sin-binned after trying to halt an attack by handling the ball on the floor. Edinburgh then surged into the Ulster 22, and rapidly moved the ball left. John Houston, who showed up well all game, found Jim Thompson outside him on the right touch-line. Thompson had work to do and beat the last two defenders to touch down for the try. Paterson converted to leave Edinburgh only two points behind.

Ulster were now looking increasingly edgy as the game moved into the last ten minutes. Humphreys eased the nerves with a penalty to make the score 18-13 with nine minutes remaining and Niall O'Connor added a further penalty right on the full-time whistle.

Scorers: Ulster: Tries: Cave, Boss. Con: Humphreys. Pens: Humphreys 2, O'Connor. Edinburgh: Try: Thompson. Con: Paterson. Pens: Paterson 2.

Ulster:J Smith; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, S Danielli; I Humphreys, I Boss; T Court, N Brady, BJ Botha, D Tuohy, S Ferris, E O'Donoghue, C Henry, D Pollock. Subs: Replacements: O'Connor for Humphreys (72), Young for Court (62), Kyriacou for Brady (62), D Fitzpatrick for Botha (75), Caldwell for Tuohy (72).

Edinburgh: C Paterson; Thompson, Cairns, Houston, Visser; Godman, Laidlaw; Jacobsen, Ford, Young, MacLeod, J Hamilton, Newlands, MacDonald, R Grant. Subs: De Luca for Cairns (50), Robertson for Visser (65), Samson for Laidlaw (70), Kelly for Ford (71), C Hamilton for MacLeod (69).

Referee: Christopher Berdos.