Cooney And Coetzee Shine As Ulster Make It Two From Two

Ulster’s second successive Heineken Champions Cup win put them in the Pool 3 driving seat tonight, as tries from Jordi Murphy and John Cooney sent a below-par Clermont Auvergne back to France with a losing bonus point that their performance scarcely deserved.

Unrecognisable from the side that pulverised Harlequins 53-21 in the opening round, star-studded Clermont struggled to put together anything resembling their trademark fluency at a rain-sodden Kingspan Stadium.

Instead, it was a pumped-up Ulster who took full advantage, with talismanic scrum half Cooney and Marcell Coetzee once again outstanding amid stellar performances across the board. The province lead the pool table by two points ahead of their December double header with Harlequins.

An immediate turnover as Nick Abendanon lost Cooney’s kick-off soon earned Ulster a penalty when Peceli Yato illegally collected at the breakdown, and the talented number 9 made no mistake from 30 metres out to give the hosts an early advantage.

A second mistake under the high ball from the Clermont full-back gifted Ulster a scrum on halfway, from which they made short work of breaking into the opposition 22, with Billy Burns, Stuart McCloskey and Cooney combining before the scrum-half was taken down only five metres from the whitewash, causing the knock-on.

Ulster continued to dominate their prestigious rivals, who repeatedly surrendered possession virtually as soon as they obtained it, and when the excellent Murphy rumbled over for his 18th-minute try from a powerful rolling maul, it was no more than what Ulster’s fantastic start deserved.

The Cooney conversion added to the visitors’ woe at 10-0, as did a missed opportunity in the 23rd minute when Alivereti Raka looked to have capitalised on a communication breakdown between Will Addison and Louis Ludik to dot down in the corner. However, the TMO review showed a clear knock-on by the winger as he tried to bring a bobbling ball under control.

Back on the attack, Ulster came close again in the 26th minute when an inch-perfect cross-field kick from Burns dropped into Jacob Stockdale’s clutches, and only a last-gasp tackle from George Moala dragged Luke Marshall, the next carrier, into touch five metres from home.

A debatable high tackle from Ludik gave Clermont a much-needed set piece, but their nightmarish evening continued when John Ulugia’s crooked put-in handed possession back to the province. Another marginal call – this time Addison with a high challenge on Paul Jedrasiak – went unpunished, but Clermont soon opened their account courtesy of a Greig Laidlaw penalty.

Importantly for Dan McFarland’s charges, Cooney cancelled out his opposite number’s three points to open up a 13-3 lead. Jedrasiak’s replacement Thibault Lanen was pinged for failing to roll away, and the successful place-kick closed out the first half further frustrating the Frenchmen.

Five minutes of rather listless play at the start of the second period pushed Clermont to replace their entire front row as well as Abendanon and out-half Jake McIntyre – regular first-choice stand-off Camille Lopez taking over at ten – but the changes made no difference to their fortunes, as a 56th-minute penalty attempt from Laidlaw sailed wide.

Nonetheless, the visitors began to establish a foothold in the game just before the hour mark, and when the next penalty came, this time for offside, the Scotland international dispatched his kick through the posts to cut the gap to 13-6.

Perhaps beginning to rue their failure to kill the game off in such a dominant first half, Ulster stepped up right from the restart. Cooney was once again the key man as he crafted himself a try not dissimilar to his score last week in Bath, attacking from the base of a ruck and chipping Raka before dribbling over the line and touching down.

Following a missed conversion, Clermont were now five points adrift of even a losing bonus point. They did force their way into the Ulster 22 with 67 minutes on the clock, eventually earning a penalty try four minutes later after three successive scrum infringements from the Ulster front row.

Now nursing a slight five-point lead, Ulster managed to move play well into the Clermont half, eating up a good seven minutes until another penalty gave Clermont their final shot at glory. Ulster just failed to snatch the turnover at the lineout as the clock ticked into red, but a final knock-on from Apisai Naqalevu sent his side home with the solitary bonus point.