United Rugby Championship: Ulster 19-17 Cardiff – Late Cooney penalty gives Ulster win

Ulster escaped with a vital URC victory over Cardiff thanks to John Cooney’s last-minute penalty.

In a dramatic closing 15 minutes the lead changed three times and Cardiff thought they had secured the win, only to see what would have been Theo Cabango’s hat-trick score ruled out.

Play was brought back for an Ulster penalty which John Cooney kicked to give Ulster a first league win under interim head coach Richie Murphy.

The result lifts Ulster up to sixth.

While Cardiff were the better side throughout the first half, both sides made early errors. Ulster’s Nathan Doak kicked one penalty dead when deep in opposition territory while Cardiff saw the ball squirt from a ruck five metres from the Ulster line.

The hosts thought they were set to open the scoring when Jude Postlethwaite sent Mike Lowry into the clear but referee Mike Adamson called the pass forward.

When Cardiff won a penalty from the resulting scrum, the Welsh region attacked sharply off the line-out to send Cabango through a gap and over the whitewash.

Before the first quarter was up both sides had lost an influential figure to injury, Ulster’s James Hume carried from the field with a leg injury on 18 minutes after Cardiff full-back Cam Winnett had been forced into an even earlier early departure.

Ulster did not get on the board until the 27th minute, Doak cutting Cardiff’s lead to 7-3 from a penalty awarded at the breakdown.

In another injury blow for Cardiff, Taulupe Faletau, in his first game since the World Cup, left the field on the half-hour mark.

Five minutes before the break, a no arms tackle from Alex Mann was punished with a second Doak penalty.

Dave Ewers getting held up over the line was the closest Ulster came to a try in the opening 40. Cardiff, perhaps, will have been disappointed only to lead 7-6 at the break.

Ulster turned to fly-half Billy Burns at half-time, the Munster-bound number 10 replacing Jake Flannery.

The change paid no immediate dividends with Cabango’s second try of the evening coming only minutes after the restart.

Ben Thomas’ wide pass opened Ulster up and the impressive Cardiff wing Cabango seared past both Postlethwaite and Stockdale on his way to the posts.

Ulster had barely regrouped before the 22-year-old was almost in for a hat-trick, his progress down the left flank halted only by Will Addison’s tackle.

The home side’s cause was not helped by Stockdale getting sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on, but the Irish winger would return with his side seven points better off than when he left.

After knocking a penalty down into the corner, Ulster went to the pick and jam game with Dave McCann the one to eventually force his way over the line amid Cardiff protestations that the ball had been knocked on in the build-up.

With a quarter of an hour to go, Ulster took their first lead of the night when replacement nine Cooney knocked over a penalty awarded at the breakdown.

Cardiff should have restored their advantage almost immediately but Cormac Izuchukwu got back to dislodge the ball as Thomas Young went to ground it in the corner.

They would only have to wait a matter of minutes. When Postlethwaite was whistled for playing the scrum-half, Tinus de Beer knocked the ball over from the resulting penalty.

With two minutes remaining Cabango thought he had won it for Cardiff, and completed his hat-trick in the process but, as De Beer lined up the conversion attempt, referee Mike Adamson was halted by his TMO.

Cardiff’s game-winning try was duly chalked off and instead play called back for a deliberate knock-on in the visitors’ ’22’.

Cooney knocked it over and, with time for the restart and no more, Ulster snatched the win.

Ulster: Addison; Lowry, Hume, Postlethwaite, Stockdale; Flannery, Doak; O’Sullivan, Stewart, Wilson; Sheridan, O’Connor; Ewers, Rea, McCann.

Replacements: Andrew, Warwick, O’Toole, Izuchukwu, Jones, Cooney, Burns, McIlroy.

Cardiff: Winnett; Adams, Grady, Thomas, Cabango; De Beer, Bevan; Domachowski, Belcher, Assiratti; Donnell, Williams; Mann, Young, Faletau.

Replacements: Lloyd, Carre, Parker, Thornton, Jenkins, Martin, Bertranou, Beetham.