Ace Kicker Cooney Comes Up Trumps Again For Ulster

Ulster battled through a patchy performance to extend their Heineken Champions Cup winning run at the expense of Harlequins in a hard-fought clash that was just as tight as the one-point gap on the scoreboard suggested.

With the lead changing hands four times, tries from Sean Reidy, man-of-the-match Stuart McCloskey and replacement Adam McBurney were not quite enough to put Ulster clear of dogged ‘Quins side, and John Cooney’s nerves of steel were once again called upon in the 78th minute to fire home a decisive high-pressure penalty.

The Ulstermen return to the top of the Pool 3 table on 12 points, one ahead of Clermont Auvergne at the halfway stage, with the losing bonus point taking ‘Quins up to five points, and Bath bringing up the rear on two.

Dan McFarland’s charges had the better of a frantic opening, testing the Harlequins backs with high balls in the swirling wind. They took a deserved seventh-minute lead when scrum half Cooney opted to kick their third consecutive penalty for goal.

Marcus Smith levelled from a good 40 metres out just moments later, and as play became disjointed in the middle of the pitch, Harlequins began to grind their way into the game. A promising attack was blighted only by an interception from Louis Ludik as the ball was moved wide at pace, and it proved just the wake-up call Ulster needed.

Cooney and Ludik combined well down the right in the next Ulster attack, although the scrum half was perhaps guilty of delaying his pass a little too long, and the momentum swung back in the visitors’ favour, Their number 8 Alex Dombrandt eventually broke through the Ulster rearguard for a 24th-minute try off a neat Kyle Sinckler pass.

The Smith conversion dispatched, Ulster upped the tempo without delay, McCloskey carving himself a path into the 22 with his trademark power before the final pass again let Ulster down. The score was not long in coming, however, and there was no questioning the execution on the half-hour mark – McCloskey exquisitely flicking Billy Burns’ cross-field kick into the path of the onrushing Reidy for a fine collective try.

Cooney’s conversion set the scoreboard at 10 points each, and although full-back Jacob Stockdale threatened from the restart with a kick-and-chase down the middle which just eluded his grasp, the first half drew to a close delicately poised with no further scores.

Ulster came back out on the offensive, forcing a lineout inside the 22 within moments and recycling with patience until Luke Marshall found McCloskey on the left wing, and the powerful centre shrugged off the last man to bundle in at the corner.

Play got back underway after a long pause for treatment to Michele Campagnaro. His replacement Francis Saili, the former Munster centre, soon drew a high tackle in front of the posts to give Smith what seemed the simplest of three points – only for his kick to rebound back off the left upright.

Undeterred by the miss, Harlequins continued to probe, eventually forcing their way over the whitewash from a lineout in the 56th minute, hooker Elia Elia dotting down and Smith adding the extras to nudge the English club into a 17-15 lead.

Then, all of a sudden, the match turned into an end-to-end scramble, with Ludik only just brought down short of the line on the attack before a deep interception from Dombrandt saw ‘Quins swarm up the field, with Samoan international Elia once again the man to touch down.

The Smith conversion extended the lead to nine points, and with fewer than 20 minutes left to salvage the game, Ulster wasted no time in turning the screw. A five-metre lineout in the 66th minute ran like clockwork with young hooker McBurney – a recent replacement for Rob Herring – applying the finishing touches.

Cooney made no mistake with his crucial conversion, and despite a scare at the restart where the ‘Quins chasers proved more alert than the Ulster receivers, the hosts reset their defence well and kept several raids at bay.

Possession was only wrestled back at the 75-minute mark, however, and two minutes later the chance came, a high tackle by Semi Kunatani giving Cooney the chance to tee up on the 10-metre line. Cool as ever, the Dubliner split the posts for the lead. He was on hand 90 seconds later to kick the ball dead and seal the result.

Giving his reaction afterwards and with an eye already on next Friday’s return fixture, Ulster head coach McFarland said: “We’ve got Harlequins away and then we have to play Clermont away, and if we play like we played here in this game over at the Stoop we haven’t got a chance of winning.

“I genuinely believe that. We’re going to have to be a whole heap better than that to be able to countenance a win (at Harlequins). Perhaps over the last couple of weeks we’ve had a lot of nice things said about us in the press, and I look at those and it makes me slightly nervous as I don’t see us as good as that.

“This is a team that can grind out wins but is in the process of becoming a consistently good team and that’s what I want (us) to be. We’re not consistent. I’m not complaining about that, I don’t think we should be consistent at this stage.

“We’re on a journey and we’ve a fair way to go before we become consistently good. So, going into next week we’re going to have to reassess where we’re at and make sure we do the fundamentals of the game right.”