Scottish international Simon Danielli scored a debut try and young out-half Niall O’Connor kicked four penalties as Ulster beat the Ospreys, the defending league champions, at Ravenhill on Friday night.
Filling in at number 10 for the injured David Humphreys, the 20-year-old O’Connor’s clever kicking game helped Ulster edge out the Welshmen who are yet to record a win, three games into the new Magners League season.
There was plenty of hard graft up front from the Ulster pack, particularly from openside Kieron Dawson who had an energetic hour, while the combined talents of Danielli, Tommy Bowe and Mark Bartholomeusz linked well in the backs.
Mistakes did creep into Ulster’s game in the final quarter as the Ospreys threatened to come from behind and pinch the win and they almost did – out-half Shaun Connor had a penalty chance to send the champions home with all four points but he was wayward with the last kick of the game.
A lineout infringement from the Ospreys gave O’Connor his first shot at the posts in the fifth-minute and the Belfast Harlequins clubman duly obliged to send Ulster in front.
Mark McCall’s team took the game to the visitors in the opening quarter, winning a series of scrums in the Ospreys’ 22 but they failed to make them count. Prop Tom Court was also bundled into touch as he stretched for the line after being set up by stand-in captain Roger Wilson.
O’Connor extended Ulster’s lead to 6-0 with his second penalty, which Ospreys out-half Connor duly replied to. The Ospreys worked the ball through their forwards for a number of minutes leading up to half-time but Ulster managed to turn around with a 9-3 buffer when O’Connor made it three kicks on the trot.
The game sparked into life at the start of the second half when flanker Dawson stole an Ospreys lineout and galloped clear of his 22, Bartholomeusz took the ball on and looked set to send the supporting Bowe over the whitewash but the try-scoring pass never came.
However the Ulster faithful did not have long to wait for their side’s first and only try as Danielli pounced to score in the left corner in the 55th-minute. The move began with Ryan Caldwell, Seamus Mallon and Matt McCullough taking the ball up through the middle, O’Connor fed Bowe who darted into space and with the Ospreys defence stretched, Bartholomeusz then laid off for Danielli to canter over.
O’Connor missed the conversion and he was at fault for the Ospreys’ try on the hour mark when Connor charged him down and gobbled up the ball to put centre Andrew Bishop over under the posts.
Connor converted and tagged on two long range penalties to see Lyn Jones’ men into a 16-14 lead with just three minutes of normal time remaining.
However Paul James’ sin-binning for a dangerous challenge on McCullough on the restart gave Ulster the impetus to see out the win, with Derry-born starlet O’Connor, the deserved man of the match, nervelessly clipping over his fourth penalty to deciding this end-to-end encounter.
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