MAGNERS LEAGUE/Ulster 24 Cardiff Blues 33:WITH FOUR Magners League games remaining, Ulster find themselves anxiously looking over their shoulders at Connacht while badly needing to pick up points in order to put more daylight between themselves and the western province.
Should Michael Bradley’s squad somehow manage to finish above them, then Ulster will have lost their place in next season’s Heineken Cup. With the Ospreys due at Ravenhill tomorrow week for a game rearranged from January, Brian McLaughlin knows his team face a real battle.
“We have to realise we’re in a dog-fight now,” the Ulster coach said, before admitting that his charges are simply not delivering. “Our performances at the moment are just not good enough.”
Niall O’Connor’s early penalty was soon cancelled out when O’Connor’s pass was easily intercepted by man-of-the-match Casey Laulala, who ran in from about 60 metres to give Ceri Sweeney the simple conversion.
Two penalties from Leigh Halfpenny to a second from O’Connor gave the Blues a 13-6 lead before Ulster-bound Xavier Rush scored under the posts from a counter.
O’Connor managed a third penalty sandwiched between Sweeney’s conversion and Halfpenny’s third penalty success, but the Blues led 23-9 at the interval.
Ulster hit back with an O’Connor penalty and a try in the corner from Ferris to cut the lead to 23-17, but Halfpenny slotted another penalty and then replacement Dafydd Hewitt’s try killed the game.
ULSTER: S Danielli; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, T Nagusa; N O’Connor I Boss; D Fitzpatrick, R Best, BJ Botha, E O’Donoghue, R Caldwell, S Ferris, D Pollock, C Henry (capt) Subs: I Whitten for P Wallace (28-35mins blood); D Tuohy for R Caldwell, B Young for D Fitzpatrick, R Diack for D Pollock (all 50 mins); I Humphreys for N O’Connor (62 mins); I Whitten for S Ferris (66 mins); P Marshall for I Boss (72 mins); A Kyriacou for T Nagusa (73 mins).
CARDIFF BLUES: C Czekaj; L Halfpenny, C Laulala, J Roberts, T James; C Sweeney, R Rees; G Jenkins, T Rhys Thomas, T Filise, D Jones, P Tito (capt), M Molitika, S Warburton, X Rush. Subs: G Williams for T Rhys Thomas (h-t), A Pretorius for P Tito (56 mins); M Williams for S Warburton (59 mins), D Hewitt for C Laulala (66 mins); S Andrews for T Filise (72 mins). Subs not used: D Allinson and D Flanagan.
Referee: A MacPherson (Scotland).
