Cooney Contributes 22 Points In Convincing Ulster Victory

Ulster’s early-season tour of South Africa came to a successful end as Dan McFarland’s men exorcised the ghosts of last week’s battering in Bloemfontein with a comprehensive 42-17 six-try defeat of the Isuzu Southern Kings in Port Elizabeth.

Tries from John Cooney, Luke Marshall, Rob Herring and Matt Faddes sewed up the bonus point by the half hour mark, before a second Cooney score and a Sean Reidy effort put the visitors out of sight.

The returning Marcell Coetzee put in an explosive performance at the base of the pack, with Stuart McCloskey, Louis Ludik, Billy Burns and Alan O’Connor also back in the starting XV as McFarland named a strong side for the third round fixture.

Good carrying from McCloskey, Sam Carter and Herring in Ulster’s very first attack gave the visitors the perfect start, Cooney darting over within 120 seconds after his captain had scooped the ball backwards from a ruck inside the Kings’ 22.

Cooney converted his own try before the Kings had the chance to show some attacking flair of their own, soon forcing a penalty for Demetri Catrakilis after Marshall had somewhat harshly been pulled up for a high tackle.

Undeterred, Ulster responded with two tries in quick succession. Marshall made it all look very simple on 13 minutes, exploiting a huge gap in the Kings rearguard off a Burns pass with Tom O’Toole’s decoy run outfoxing the South Africans much too easily.

The centre was also at the heart of the third try three minutes later, his run from deep and patiently-timed pass finding Ludik before good hands from O’Connor put Herring in for another simple score.

Cooney’s brace of conversions took Ulster up to 21 points at the end of the first quarter, but the Kings refused to let their heads drop. Five minutes of good possession should have been rewarded from a rolling maul, only for flanker Tienie Burger to knock on.

A loose pass in midfield then got the Kings in hot water, and once the Ulster forwards had torn up the turf with both Matthew Rea and Reidy making progress, an inch-perfect Burns kick to the right corner saw Faddes just beat Craig Gilroy to the ball to dot down.

Try number five in the 31st minute was all about Coetzee, who broke a tackle on halfway and then showed great sleight of hand to dummy his way out of the next challenge before setting up a second try of the game for the busy Cooney.

To their credit, the Kings were able to steady the ship in the closing minutes of the first half, when centre Tertius Kruger stole a march on an Ulster pack decimated by a congested ruck to glide past Burns and score their opening try.

Armed with a 35-10 half-time lead, Ulster had to replace McCloskey who limped off with a knock early in the second period. The Kings pressed and pressed for a good 10 minutes, but some sterling defence from the visitors kept successive mauls at bay.

Ulster got a lucky break when Kings winger Courtney Winnar pulled his hamstring as he accelerated through after an interception. There was no stopping Reidy when he rumbled over from a maul during the province’s next attack, before Cooney’s sixth successful conversion completed his handsome 22-point haul.

Louw was a whisker away from replying for the South African outfit, but with replacement Adam McBurney sin-binned for a high tackle, second row Aston Fortuin’s 68th-minute try in the corner provided some consolation.

With Kings full-back Masixole Banda denied a last-minute try for a double movement, Ulster returned home with six points from the two-match trip. Their next game falls on Friday, October 25 when Cardiff Blues come to Belfast.