Ice-Cool Madigan Completes Stirring Semi-Final Comeback For Ulster

Ian Madigan was in ice-cool form from the tee as he fired home two vital late kicks to seal a famous 22-19 comeback win for Ulster in tonight’s gripping Guinness PRO14 semi-final against Edinburgh at BT Murrayfield.

As It Happened: Edinburgh v Ulster Live Blog

In only his third appearance for the province, Madigan came off the bench to land a levelling 75th-minute conversion – from tight to the right touchline – before nailing a decisive last-minute penalty from over 40 metres out.

His classy place-kicking capped off a memorable fight-back from Ulster who twice came from 12 points down thanks to a momentum-shifting run of tries from Guinness player-of-the-match Rob Lyttle, Rob Herring and replacement John Andrew.

Edinburgh had looked the better team for much of their first-ever PRO14 semi-final, adding to captain Stuart McInally’s lone first half try, which gave them a 5-0 lead, with further touchdowns from Darcy Graham and Chris Dean.

However, the impetus provided by Ulster’s strong bench saw the game swing in their favour as they set up a tantalising all-Irish final against defending champions Leinster back at the Aviva Stadium next Saturday (kick-off 7.35pm).

Dan McFarland’s men produced only the third away semi-final victory in PRO14 history – matching the achievements of the Scarlets at Leinster in 2017 and Glasgow Warriors in 2018. Ulster, the 2006 champions, last contested a league final back in 2013 when they lost 24-18 to Leinster at the RDS.

Duhan van der Merwe’s ability to regularly beat the first man saw Edinburgh settle first in attack, and Ulster succumbed when a 13th-minute lineout platform allowed hooker McInally to break down the blindside of a maul and crash over.

The difficult conversion was nudged wide by Jaco van der Walt before Ulster showed promising signs in their response. A series of penalties put them within try-scoring range with repeated lineouts in the left corner, but a knock-on lifted the pressure on Edinburgh’s defence.

Some sloppy phases from Ulster saw Jacob Stockdale fumble in the air and then, from another advanced lineout, Herring was isolated by the impressive Hamish Watson for a clearing penalty with 26 minutes gone.

Stockdale, who neatly took down his next two high balls, then carried well past halfway only for Graham to win the turnover penalty. Watson also outmuscled Jordi Murphy at the breakdown to put the Scots back on the front foot, approaching half-time.

Herring and Stockdale picked up a couple of important turnovers late on, Ulster’s defence holding firm and getting to the breakdown first. Stockdale was well positioned to foil a threatening break which saw John Cooney haul down the fast-breaking Dean at the edge of the Ulster 22.

Alby Mathewson and Michael Lowry came on at the start of the second half, with the latter’s inclusion moving Stockdale to the left wing. But, once again, it was the Scottish capital club that showed a clinical edge with ball in hand.

With their workhorse pack carrying infield to the posts and creating an inviting blindside, van der Walt managed to break Billy Burns’ tackle and slip the ball wide for busy winger Graham to finish off from close range. The South African stand-off converted to make it 12-0.

Lyttle provided some much-needed spark for Ulster as the game began to open up, with the youngster exploiting a sliver of space near the right touchline. Before that, an Edinburgh breakout try had seemed certain but Burns brilliantly intercepted a Mark Bennett pass.

Despite a frustrating Mathewson knock-on with Ulster pressing for a try, they finally got some joy in the 53rd minute. A long arrow of a pass from James Hume released Marcell Coetzee who combined with Stuart McCloskey to put Lyttle jinking in off his right, past Watson and Blair Kinghorn, to gleefully go in behind the posts.

The gloss was quickly taken off that Burns-converted score, though, as Edinburgh answered back barely three minutes later. Playing a penalty advantage, Watson wriggled free of some poor tackles before offloading, a few metres short of the line, for centre Dean to claim try number three.

With the conversion dispatched by van der Walt, the scoreboard showed 19-12 but only for a short while. Ulster hurtled back through their forwards as a 61st-minute lineout drive launched hooker Herring over for a excellently-finished try, past the covering Pierre Schoeman and Ben Toolis.

Burns was unable to convert, yet the Ulster replacements, along with the tireless McCloskey and Coetzee, were giving them the metres they had craved. A Coetzee turnover penalty launched them forward again, but the big South African knocked on at the end of some strength-sapping phases in the hosts’ 22.

Lyttle’s right wing was fertile ground for the Ulstermen to target, the 23-year-old flyer linking sweetly with Lowry before another knock-on halted the move. Time was running out, especially with Edinburgh able to manufacture a relieving penalty from a 70th-minute scrum.

A tight penalty call soon went Ulster’s way, though, and a patiently-worked 73rd-minute lineout maul sent Andrew scrambling over from a few metres out. Suddenly it was all-square thanks to a terrific conversion from far out by Madigan, who had only come on five minutes earlier.

Stockdale soared for a superb aerial take to retain possession and keep the pressure on a tense Edinburgh. With Ulster gaining ground, Michael Willemse rushed up and gave away a penalty for a deliberate knock-on. Madigan was equal to the task and made it a night to remember for McFarland’s never-say-die side.

Reflecting on how they battled back to keep their title hopes alive, McFarland said afterwards: “I wouldn’t say I was confident at 12 points down, not the way we were playing up until that point. We had made a lot of mistakes. We hadn’t played particularly well.

“But the effort was there and we also demonstrated that with a little bit of ambition in our play we could do damage. That showed in the second half. The mental challenge of winning away in a semi-final is huge, it’s absolutely huge.

“The bookies had Edinburgh at -6. It’s pretty decisive. Scarlets are the only team that have won away from home in a semi-final and we talked all week about the fact that if we wanted to win this game, nothing would be given to us, only taken.

“If we were going to win, we had to take it, and we had to approach the game in the sense that it had to be us that went out and won it. And sure enough, in that first half Edinburgh gave us nothing. We went at them, we obviously have good ball carriers in certain areas of the park, they took us on there.

“We have a good maul at the moment, they took us on there. These are areas of the game we hoped would work but they didn’t. We couldn’t grasp hold of it. It was only in the second half when we added a little bit of an extra dimension to our attack and made a couple of extra tweaks around what we were doing at maul time that we were able to get some success.”

Asked about the match-winning moment, he added: “He’s big time, isn’t he? Anybody who knows ‘Mads’ knows he’s big time. I’ve watched him kick goals at the end of games, I’ve watched him make great plays in crucial moments in games. He did a great job.

“It was just one of those things where we needed a bit of impact there, and that’s not taking anything away from Billy (Burns) because he looked pretty good in both games he’s played in, but having that kind of 10 who can come in and make an impact like that in big games is pretty important. We all know that.”