Low scoring match at Murrayfield goes to Ulster
With the rain pouring down, accompanied by a cold wind, it promised to be a fairly tight match at Murrayfield. And so it proved, with neither side able to penetrate either defence, it was left to the kickers to keep the score board ticking over in the final match on the, much maligned, grass pitch.
Edinburgh were on the attack from the start of the game and, for the first 15 minutes kept Ulster pinned back in their own half. A large part of this was deep inside the 22, but Ulster’s defence held out and the hosts had to be content with a penalty attempt from Carl Bezuidenhout. So 15 minutes played and Edinburgh were 3-0 ahead and looking the stronger of the two sides. Another penalty a few minutes later for a dangerous tackle, and which earned a yellow card for Iain Henderson, was short, so the score remained 3-0.
Unfortunately for the home side, it was Ulster who were next on the board with a medium range penalty from Paddy Jackson, which the stand-off sent over to draw the sides level.
With Henderson back on, the match gradually degenerated into a mid-field struggle, with the conditions playing their part to spoil things. Just before half time, the final straw in a continual series scrum resets, gave another penalty to Ulster which Jackson saw over to take a narrow lead for the visitors 6-3. The half ended with Edinburgh pushing Ulster back, but another penalty give away ended the half with the visitors holding on to their narrow lead.
The second half was largely a non-event – only enlivened by some of Grayson Hart’s female fans cheering a shirt change. Neither side could do anything to break down the oppositions defence. An early penalty from Jackson extended the lead 
for Ulster, but the return of the rain bogged the match down again. Apart from a swiftly moving rolling maul which Edinburgh got going into the visitors 22, the ball remained mostly with Ulster until the final few minutes when Edinburgh got their act together and mounted a sustained attack on the Ulster line. However, just as in the first half, a penalty for not releasing in the ruck gave Jackson the chance to boot the ball out to end, what was, a fairly dreary match.
With this being the final match on the infamous grass, the club had announced that the fans would be allowed to ‘invade’ the pitch post-match and even dig up some of the, not quite so, hallowed turf to take home and infest their own grass at home. Ironically, the turf had stood up to the scrum forces during this match better than it had during any other match during the season. Just goes to show…….
Images from the match will appear here over the next few days
