Glasgow frustration for Ulster's Dan McFarland
Ulster failed to make it three victories at the Scottish venue on Saturday night in the URC clash, losing 33-20.
Despite racing into a 14-0 lead after 11 minutes, Dan McFarland’s side left empty-handed as Glasgow scored five tries while the visitors could only add two penalties in the remaining 69 minutes.
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Hide AdUlster have slipped to fourth in the table and McFarland thought his side’s lack of discipline by conceding 12 penalties allowed Glasgow to get back into the game.
“I’m really disappointed but a lot of what we did in the first half was excellent, particularly around our defence,” said the Ulster head coach. “But, for some reason, we fell on the wrong side of the referee and we couldn’t work it out.
“It meant that we put ourselves under a lot of pressure and then in that first half, after we had scored those first two tries, we didn’t finish sets so that put us under more pressure.
“Then in the second half we really didn’t get a grip of the physicality of the game and, again, when we had our chances, we didn’t finish sets.”
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Hide AdYou lose two 10s within however long - the first 10 minutes of the game - and it’s obviously going to make it very difficult and Nathan (Doak) didn’t practice at 10 all week so or a limited amount in the week, so it was definitely disrupted.
“But I thought we put ourselves in a good position in that game and were very physical but with the amount of penalties we gave away at the breakdown that’s what swung the momentum of the game and they got their mojo going and they’re a good team.
“From the attack side of things, we’ve got to be able to hold on to the ball and be able to finish sets and we’ll be taking that into the Edinburgh game.”
Despite getting no match points from the game McFarland could take a few positives.
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Hide Ad“I thought James McNabney did a good job and it’s lovely to see Zac Solomon get his cap...at the other end of the scale, Steven Kitshoff was out there so that was great to see.”
Tom Stewart got Ulster’s first try on five minutes from a driving line out maul, with John Cooney converting.
Cooney scored six minutes later, recovering his own fumble at the back of the ruck to exploit a gap. The try took Cooney to 1000 points in an Ulster shirt and he converted his own score.
Warriors’ Sean Kennedy sniped over from close range with Tom Jordan converting.
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Hide AdThe sides went into half-time level at 14-14 after George Turner finished off a powerful maul with Jordan converting.
Kyle Rawe scored an unconverted try on 50 minutes, Kieran Treadwell was yellow-carded for an offence earlier in the move.
Cooney was on target with a penalty six minutes later then Johnny Matthews sprinted over with Jordan adding the extras.
Doak posted a penalty but Matthews’ second try on 72 minutes, which Jordan converted.
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Hide AdGLASGOW WARRIORS: J McKay, S Cancelliere, S Tuipulotu, S McDowall (capt), K Rawe, T Jordan, S Kennedy; J Bhatti, G Turner, Z Fagerson, G Peterson, S Cummings, M Fagerson, R Darge, J Dempsey.
Replacements: J Matthews for Turner 57 mins, O Kebble for Bhatti 57 mins, L Sordoni for Z Fagerson 71 mins, R Gray for Peterson 71 mins, S Manjez for Cummings 71 minsi, S Vailanu , B Afshar for Kennedy 76 mins, D Weir for Tuipulotu 71 mins
ULSTER: W Addison, R Baloucoune, J Hume, L Marshall, J Stockdale, B Burns, J Cooney;
E O’Sullivan, T Stewart, M Moore, K Treadwell, I Henderson (capt), H Sheridan, R Crothers, J McNabney.
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Hide AdReplacements: Z Solomon for Stewart 72 mins, S Kitshoff for O’Sullivan 49 mins, M Moore for O’Toole 49 mins, A O’Connor for Henderson 49 mins, Matty Rea for Sheridan 52 mins, D Shanahan for Cooney 60 mins, N Doak for Burns 19 mins, B Moxham for Marshall 64 mins
Referee: B Whitehouse.