Sport

O'Connor keeps his nerve to secure win

Ulster 17 N-S Ospreys 16: Ulster opened their Magners League campaign with a narrow win over the Ospreys at Ravenhill.

Sat Sept 22 2007 - 01:00

Ulster 17 N-S Ospreys 16:Ulster opened their Magners League campaign with a narrow win over the Ospreys at Ravenhill.

Niall O'Connor, a late call-up for the injured David Humphreys, opened the scoring with a penalty on six minutes as the Ospreys infringed at the lineout. O'Connor doubled Ulster's lead with a long-range penalty on 17 minutes.

Ospreys outhalf Shaun Connor made no mistake with his second penalty attempt as the visitors started to get a hold on the game using their pack to make hard yards through the Ulster defence.

O'Connor landed his third penalty on 35 minutes to give Ulster a 9-3 lead at the interval and he nearly extended the advantage, but failed with an effort from his own half in stoppage-time.

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Simon Danielli marked his arrival at Ulster with a try on his debut 12 minutes after the restart. Ryan Caldwell drove at the defence from turnover ball, Séamus Mallon and Matt McCullough made more hard yards before O'Connor, Tommy Bowe and Mark Bartholomeusz combined to set up the try for the Scottish international.

Andrew Bishop got the defending champions back in the game with a try after O'Connor had a clearance charged down and Connor added the conversion.

Connor reduced Ulster's lead to one point with seven minutes remaining as he slotted a penalty over from the halfway line. The Welsh side took the lead with another long range penalty as Ulster were punished for hands in the ruck.

But the Ospreys were reduced to 14 men when prop Paul James was sin-binned and O'Connor landed the decisive penalty, though he did miss another late chance with the last kick of the game.

SCORERS: Ulster - Tries: Danielli. Pens: O'Connor 4. Ospreys - Tries: A Bishop. Cons: Connor. Pens: Connor 3.

ULSTER: Bartholomeusz, McCrea, Bowe, Mallon, Danielli, O'Connor, Campbell, J. Fitzpatrick, Brady, Court, Barker, Caldwell, McCullough, Dawson, Wilson. Replacements: Cunningham for Mallon (73), Marshall for Campbell (74), Harrison for Barker (57), Pollock for Dawson (64). Not used: Miles, D. Fitzpatrick, Larkin.

OSPREYS: Byrne, Terblanche, Taylor, A. Bishop, Brew, Connor, Marshall, James, B. Williams, Griffiths, Cockbain, Powell, Smith, Tandy, Tiatia. Replacements: Vaughton for Brew (71), Roberts for Marshall (67), Hibbard for B. Williams (67), Lloyd for Powell (69). Not used: Millward, Lewis, Spratt.

Att: 7,500.

Referee: D Changleng.