Gloucester Rugby 38-34 Ulster, Kingsholm
Scorecard
George Barton scored a try in the added minutes as Gloucester Rugby edged out Ulster 38-34 in their Heineken Champions Cup at Kingsholm.
The game also saw four sin-bins and three penalty tries awarded but in the end Cherry and Whites will be relieved to be on the winning side.
Gloucester dominated the early exchange with Louis Rees-Zammit crashing in the corner and Lloyd Evans kicked the conversion. The visitors though levelled the scores in the 11th minute when Billy Burns dotted down against his former side and John Cooney improved
A 23rd minute penalty from Evans put Gloucester in front and their momentum took a further boost as Ulster suffered a double yellow card in the 25th minute with Rob Herring and Alan O’Connor sin-binned for collapsing the maul and a penalty try was awarded to the Cherry and Whites making it 17-7 before Cooney’s penalty helped the visitors reduce the deficit to seven points before the break.
The start of the second half saw Mark Atkinson touch down at the back of the rolling maul but his effort was negated by Michael Lowry’s touchdown in the 53rd minute making the scoreline 24-17.
The scores were levelled in the 58th minute when Ulster were awarded a penalty try following a sin-bin to Rees-Zammit for a illegal intercept and the Irish side seized on the momentum with Cooney’s converted try after a penalty kick that gave them a 10-point lead heading into the final 10 minutes.
Nevertheless, Ulster surrendered the advantage with McIlroy sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on that resulted in a second penalty try for the home side before Barton’s heroics in the added minutes sealed the game for the Cherry and Whites.
Team line-up:
Gloucester: Moyle; Sharples, Harris, Atkinson, Rees-Zammit; Evans, Chapman; Rapava-Ruskin, Singleton, Knight, Slater, Alemanno; Reid, Ludlow (capt), Ackermann.
Reserves: Walker, Seville, Ford-Robinson, Craig, Nagle-Taylor, Venner, Barton, Trinder.
Ulster: Lowry; Faddes, Hume, McCloskey, Stockdale; Burns (capt), Cooney; O’Sullivan, Herring, Moore, A O’Connor, D O’Connor; Reidy, Murphy, Timoney.
Reserves: Andrew, McCall, O’Toole, Rea, Jones, Mathewson, Madiagn, McIlroy.
