Best And Cave Bow Out As Ulster Fail To Stop Free-Scoring Glasgow

Glasgow Warriors outscored Ulster by seven tries to three to power to dominant 50-20 GUINNESS PRO14 semi-final win at Scotstoun Stadium tonight.

The result brought an end to the provincial careers of Rory Best and Darren Cave, with the latter bowing out as Ulster’s joint most-capped player of all-time alongside his former team-mate Andrew Trimble (229). Retiring Ulster captain Best will now dust himself down and focus on preparations for the Rugby World Cup later this year.

Admitting his side were very much second best on the night, Ulster head coach Dan McFarland said afterwards: “We were very disappointed in our performance but, at the same time, having watched that Glasgow performance, I’m not sure even our best performance would have won here. That’s the best I’ve seen them play this year.

“I thought they were really good value for their win – tactically astute, physically on the money and in terms of precision and accuracy, excellent. We were able to put a little pressure on them but that pressure was insignificant when you consider they broke early and put us on the back foot.

“When that kind of momentum happens with a team as hungry as Glasgow, who are able to put you under that kind of physical pressure, then it’s always going to be difficult. This year we’ve had a couple of key games where we’ve fallen behind to those tries early on and then not been able to pick ourselves up off the canvas.

“I’d say pretty clearly Rory wanted to go out on a win, and probably wanted to play in a game where we played our best rugby and we didn’t do that. That’s the most disappointing thing.”

Former Ulster player Tommy Seymour opened the scoring following a blistering start by the hosts, and McFarland’s side never really recovered. Adam Hastings, the Championship’s Energia Next-Gen Player of the season, knocked over the conversion, before also adding the extras for an Ali Price score soon after for a 14-0 lead.

In a breathless start, it was the hosts – dominant from the get-go – who drew first blood within three minutes of the kick-off. Not for the first time on the night, out-half Hastings was the architect, flighting a defence-splitting pass over to the right wing for fellow Scotland international Seymour to crash his way over.

The Warriors were playing like a team determined to seize their chance of a final in their home city, establishing a stranglehold of both possession and territory against the scrambling visitors. But with Ulster typically stoic in defence, it took until the end of the first quarter for the Conference A winners to further press home their superiority.

This time it was the turn of another Scotland international to impress. Price, a key figure for Gregor Townsend’s men towards the end of their Guinness Six Nations campaign, made the most of space on the blindside to get over past Iain Henderson’s poor attempted tackle, following a powerful lineout maul.

Ulster responded with their first foray into the Glasgow 22, yet received scant reward with their lineout faltering again. Hastings and John Cooney traded penalties, but that was not the end of the first half scoring as flanker Rob Harley grabbed his first try of the season from close range to make it 24-3 at the turnaround.

Similar was to follow after the break, with tiring legs opening up even more space for Glasgow to exploit. 54 minutes were on the clock when Stuart Hogg, in his final home game as a Glasgow player, provided another glimpse of his attacking class by freeing up Seymour for the winger’s second of the evening.

It was the sixth time that combination had linked for a try in PRO14 action so far this season, and the pair’s connection will undoubtedly be key to their hopes of lifting the trophy against Leinster next Saturday. With their lead close to insurmountable, still Glasgow pressed, and Kyle Steyn and Peter Horne dotted down either side of a trademark Marcell Coetzee score.

Following a hugely warm reception for Best, his replacement Rob Herring grabbed his eighth try of the season from a driving lineout, with George Horne and Michael Lowry exchanging late efforts as Ulster salvaged some pride. Despite a very frustrating finish, Lowry and company can still take plenty of positives from their knockout stage appearances in both Europe and the PRO14.

“That realisation that you’ll never pull on an Ulster jersey again is not a nice feeling…that you’ve given so much to,” Best told Ulster Rugby TV. “I suppose all good things have to come to an end eventually, and I think that Ulster are in a really good place, which is where you hope, when you start your career, that you can leave it off.

“When you take a breath and put that result aside and look at what we’ve achieved, I think this season is something that we can be immensely proud of. I don’t think anyone gave us a chance of making a home quarter-final (in the PRO14) – I think it was down as a year to probably scrap again.

“I think we’ve shown a lot of stubbornness at times, a lot of great play, a lot of belief. Fundamentally there’s a lot to build on. Look, we’re hurting from that. We came here fully expecting to win. We felt we had the game-plan and the players to do it, but Glasgow played really well and we didn’t fire our best shots.”

He added: “For Darren, Ulster’s been massive for him. You look at what he’s been through at Ulster, with all the highs and the lows and how much his family have invested in it, what his family have been through during his time at Ulster. It’s nice for him to come away with that record. Secretly, with it being Cavey, Trimby will be happy to share it with Darren.

“With all Darren’s given to the shirt and I think for those two boys to be sitting at the top of that caps pile is an unbelievable achievement and something that they should both be quite rightly very proud of.”