Ian Madigan the hero for Ulster

Edinburgh led 12-0 and 19-7 during the second half and a fifth consecutive semi-final look on the cards for Ulster but McFarland emptied the bench and his side responded by scoring 15 unanswered points to book their place in Saturday night’s final against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.

Out-half Madigan, a 70th minute replacement for captain Billy Burns, had nailed a touch line conversion to level the scores at 19-19 and was presented with a chance to win the game as Edinburgh’s replacement hooker Mike Willemse was penalised for slapping the ball down while going for an attempted intercept.

The Irish international held his nerve and landed the match winning kick from just outside the Edinburgh 10 metre line.

Edinburgh dominated the opening quarter of an hour and finally got their reward when captain Stuart McInally crashed over from a try.

Ulster conceded a penalty close to their line, Edinburgh went to the corner, from the lineout the forwards set up a driving maul before the Scottish hooker peeled off the back and had enough power to get over the whitewash but out half Jaco van der Walt failed to convert.

Ulster forced three penalties close to the Edinburgh line and kicked for touch each time, however they couldn’t penetrate the home defence and eventually knocked on.

Both sides struggled to find any fluidity and when they did an error normally ended any chance of scoring.

Edinburgh wasted a glorious chance just before half time, centre Chris Dean burst through the Ulster defence but he couldn’t get is pass away to midfield partner Mark Bennett and the visitors were able to force a turnover on the ground.

McInally’s try was to prove the only score of the score of the first half and Edinburgh went into the interval with a 5-0 lead.

Edinburgh got their second try five minutes after the restart.

Jordi Murphy conceded a penalty at the breakdown and Blair Kinghorn put the home team within five metres of the Ulster line.

From the lineout Edinburgh drove close to the Ulster try line, following a series of pick and goes Nic Groom spun it wide, van der Walt straighten the line broke two tackles before putting winger Darcy Graham over in the corner with the out half converting

Winger Rob Lyttle got Ulster back in the game with a try on 57 minutes.

Edinburgh kicked aimlessly out of defence, Marcell Coetzee and Stuart McCloskey combined well to put Lyttle clear and the winger wrong footed two home defenders to race over unopposed with Billy Burns converting.

Edinburgh hit straight back, Bill Mata punched a hole in the Ulster defence, Hamish Watson burst clear offloaded out of the tack to Dean and the centre held off two defenders to power over with ver der Walt converting.

Rob Herring got Ulster’s second try when he was propelled over from a lineout maul but Burns couldn’t convert from a wide angle and Edinburgh led by seven points going into the last quarter.

John Andrew scored a try from a driving maul before Madigan’s two heroic kicks won it for Ulster and put them into their first Pro Rugby final in seven years.