High drama in Bloemfontein saw Ulster salvage a 39-all draw with an impressive Toyota Cheetahs side courtesy of Billy Burns’ ice-cool conversion of Henry Speight’s 80th-minute try.
Dan McFarland’s side left the Toyota Stadium with two points for the draw and a try-scoring bonus point, with two first half scores from David Shanahan, a Jonny Stewart effort and a penalty try before Henry Speight’s late levelling seven-pointer.
The hard-earned result keeps the Ulstermen hot on the heels of provincial rivals Leinster at the top of the Conference B table. They have accumulated 15 points so far – one shy of the defending champions – and are the only unbeaten team left in both conferences.
Facing into the second and final match of their South Africa tour, Ulster had five personnel changes from the side that defeated the Isuzu Southern Kings, with two Academy players, winger Angus Kernohan and prop Eric O’Sullivan, making their first starts for the province.
The first half was an engaging and well-matched affair, with attacking flair from both sides and two tries apiece. Ulster were caught cold in the first 90 seconds, Cheetahs centre Nico Lee exposing a gap off the back of a lineout and picking out flanker Gerhard Olivier for an easy try.
However, the visitors were back on terms in the third minute, Darren Cave capitalising on some similarly slack defence from the South Africans to put former Ireland Under-20 scrum half Shanahan through for an unopposed run to the line.
Prop Wiehahn Herbst’s evening soon proved short-lived as a knock saw him replaced by Tom O’Toole within the first 10 minutes, and Ulster were fortunate to survive another scare when Cheetahs lock JP du Preez broke through, only for Shanahan to bring him down and force a knock-on despite the size mismatch between the two players.
Nonetheless, the Cheetahs continued to belie their low standing at the foot of Conference A standings, deservedly retaking the lead on 18 minutes through a Tian Schoeman penalty. Ulster were quick to respond again, breaking through for their second try at the start of the second quarter.
The increasingly influential Shanahan completed his brace after a superb combination between the province’s centres, Stuart McCloskey with the offload and Cave drawing the chasers before picking out his scrum half who was up in support.
Sensing blood, Ulster repeatedly kicked penalties to touch but failed to reap further points from any and, after losing flanker Sean Reidy to injury in the 24th minute, they allowed the hosts to hit back. Ten minutes of Cheetahs dominance came to a head with Rabz Maxwane eluding five tacklers as he waltzed through the middle and picked out his fellow winger William Small-Smith for the try just before the interval and a 17-14 lead.
Good chasing from Peter Nelson, who started at full-back in place of Will Addison (back), put man-of-the-match Maxwane under pressure and got Ulster an advanced lineout early in the second half. When the penalty came as the visitors probed the Cheetahs 22, Billy Burns this time opted for the posts to level the sides at 17-all.
Frustratingly, a high tackle by Marcell Coetzee in his own 22 set in motion a series of Ulster penalties, culminating in a yellow card for second row Alan O’Connor’s side-entry, and a subsequent rolling maul try for hooker Joseph Dweba.
Another Burns penalty quickly reduced the deficit to two points, but patient work from the Cheetahs eventually paid dividends just after the hour mark when another highly effective lineout maul saw replacement hooker Jacques du Toit score the South Africans’ third try.
The Ulster reaction was exactly what was needed, replacement scrum half Stewart sprinting over the line after rapid offloads from Kernohan and McCloskey had left the tiring Cheetahs for dead. It was the 20-year-old’s first senior try for Ulster.
Burns’ conversion attempt veered wide – his first miss of the night – but Ulster sensed the result was now there for the taking, and a 72nd minute penalty to touch gave them the chance to showcase their own driving maul, referee Ben Whitehouse awarding the penalty try and sin-binning Charles Marais for illegally preventing the score by entering from the side.
Ulster’s 32-29 lead was frustratingly short-lived, though. Maxwane clearly had failed to read the script, as he showed lightning quick pace to latch onto an up-and-under for an impressive solo score. The Louis Fouche conversion, followed by a long range penalty from the replacement out-half, looked to have settled matters with the Cheetahs seven points to the good with two minutes remaining.
Yet, for the third week running in an Ulster fixture, the drama was far from over. Australian international Speight succeeded in swivelling over from close range as the clock ticked into the red zone, and Burns nervelessly knocked over the conversion under intense pressure to secure the draw.
It was a case of mixed emotions for Ulster head coach McFarland who admitted after the game: “We’re disappointed we didn’t win. We came with the objective of winning, we felt we could and I still feel we should have won. But in the first half we didn’t play the territory game perfectly and we missed a couple of tackles, which meant we ended up in our half defending for too long.
“Overall, with a five-day turnaround, the injuries we suffered in the lead up to the game and in the first quarter of the game, and only having a limited number of forwards to cover in trying conditions for us, I was really impressed.
“To fight back in that second half, to take three points away from the match was…I’m not going to say satisfying but I will say well done to the lads. We refer to it as ‘fight for every inch’ and it actually came from (the players). Over the summer, Bryn (Cunnigham) was getting information back from them about culture, mapping out what was important to the fellas, and one thing that came back was a really competitive attitude.
“That married in perfectly with what I’m about – that’s me. We’ve framed that as fight for every inch, so when we look at the matches and analyse them, we look for the behaviours that demonstrate that and we celebrate those. In the Scarlets game, the Edinburgh game and now this game, we’ve had to come from behind on multiple occasions and we’ve done that.
“We’re still growing. I don’t think we’re close to being as good as we can be, so the pressure is to keep on them, on us, to keep getting better. I think we’re certainly making progress.”
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