Ulster manages to overcome Glasgow
Ulster managed to record a narrow 19-17 win over Glasgow in a tightly contested Magner's League game at Ravenhill.
This was the Irish province's fourth win in five games and they now move onto 18 points, level with fellow league leaders Munster and Cardiff.
South African international Ruan Pienaar scored all of Ulster’s points in a fantastic debut performance.
Pienaar missed his first penalty attempt and Glasgow took the lead through a Duncan Weir penalty.
The visitors extended their lead when Daniel van der Merwe scored a superb try and showed great pace to avoid the Ulster defence and score in the corner. Ireland international Andew Trimble will be disappointed after he dropped the ball that sent van der
Merwe through to put the visitors into an eight-point lead. Weir failed with the conversion.
Ulster came back and Pienaar made amends for his early miss by knocking over a penalty via the post. The out-half reduced Glasgow’s lead to two points after he scored another penalty.
In the 22nd minute, Pienaar scored his first try for the province. An Ulster scrum put pressure on the Glasgow front five and Rory Best claimed the loose ball before he slipped a pass for Pienaar who ran in and scored an easy try.
The scrum-half knocked over his own conversion to put Ulster into the lead for the first time in the match.
Weir sent a drop goal attempt wide, but Glasgow reclaimed the lead before half-time with another Weir penalty.
Pienaar added another penalty which went in off the post in the second half after Ulster put pressure on the Warriors' defence. Again Glasgow came back with Weir kicking over his fourth penalty of the game to put Glasgow 17-16 in front.
A Glasgow infringement gave Pienaar his fourth penalty to make the score 19-17 to Ulster. The South African should have extended the lead but he struck the post with a straight forward attempt on goal.
After the match Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin said, "We knew it was going to be very competitive and the match turned out to be very tight, Glasgow pushed us hard. We are happy with the result but we still have a fair bit to go in terms of performance as
we are making too many basic errors.
McLaughlin added, "We need to hold onto the ball and have to push away from sides when we get our noses in front.”
The Ulster coach was not completely satisfied with the result.
"It's good to get the results but we want to play quality rugby - maybe we are trying too hard to play quality rugby."
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