A brace of tries from the in-form Craig Gilroy and a late score from debutant Ross Adair were not enough for Ulster as the Newport Gwent Dragons took advantage of the province’s disjointed display to take a 26-22 verdict.
Both Ross Adair and fellow newcomer Sam Arnold impressed as second half replacements in the Ulster back-line, but a high penalty count and the Dragons’ spirited efforts proved the visitors’ undoing, as they fell to their fifth defeat of the GUINNESS PRO12 season.
Samoan international Mike Stanley made his first start in one of three personnel changes enforced by suspensions and injury following last weekend’s victory over the Scarlets at Kingspan Stadium.
In bright south Wales sunshine, a solid start from the Dragons saw winger Tom Prydie land a 13th minute penalty before two fine bursts from full-back Gilroy got Ulster up and running. Then a well-engineered lineout drive created the space for a diagonal run from Rory Scholes, who picked out Gilroy just inside the 22 for a typically agile finish in the left corner.
Ruan Pienaar, who had an off-day with the boot, pulled his conversion attempt wide and Ulster’s 21st-minute lead was short-lived. Prydie stepped up to slot over his second successful kick just five minutes later.
Dogged tackling on halfway from the Dragons kept several potential Ulster attacks under wraps around the 30-minute mark, until Michael Allen managed to burrow his way through in a promising raid which eventually broke down with a knock-on from Dan Tuohy.
Ulster lacked urgency at times and save for some individual flashes, they disappointed as a collective. They also fell foul of referee Dudley Phillips’ whistle, particular in the scrum and at the breakdown, and were fortunate to run off at the break only 6-5 behind. Two Prydie penalty attempts, the first from inside his own half and the second from the Ulster 10-metre line, sailed wide.
Accurate positional kicking from Humphreys early in the second period kept the Dragons under pressure in their own half, and a collapsed scrum on the tighthead side paved the way for another Pienaar penalty attempt on 44 minutes, but again the kick veered off-target.
The South African scrum half made no such mistake three minutes later as his close range penalty took him past the 500-point mark in his PRO12 career.
However, Ulster’s sloppiness continued as Nick Williams’ failed to roll away quickly enough for referee Phillips and Dorian Jones expertly dispatched the kick through the uprights to reestablish the slender home lead.
Ulster’s task got all the more difficult on 54 minutes as prop Callum Black was sin-binned at the culmination of a series of team infringements, and the Dragons’ driving maul from the resulting lineout saw replacement hooker Rhys Buckley dive over for the try.
Jones’ conversion missed the target, but it mattered little seven minutes later when scrum half Jonathan Evans exposed some poor Ulster defending as he picked up from the back of a ruck for the second home try, this time converted by Jones.
The Ulster fight-back began on 69 minutes, as replacement scrum half Paul Marshall linked with Darren Cave as the ball popped out the back of a 20-metre scrum, and the stand-in captain found Gilroy for his second try of the afternoon which Pienaar converted.
The Dragons wasted little time in responding, however, as Carl Meyer took Cave’s tackle in his stride to touch down impressively in the corner off Hallam Amos’ pass, the conversion missing to set the gap at 11 points with six minutes remaining.
As time ticked away Ballynahinch Adair ensured Ulster did not leave Newport empty-handed, touching down in the last minute of regulation time after dribbling over the line from Gilroy’s chip forward and some help from the boot of Cave.
Pienaar added the extras and although there was time for the restart, the Dragons soon snuffed out a final Ulster surge near halfway to secure only their third home win of the 2014/15 campaign.
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