Ulster U19s Begin Inter-pro Campaign With Win at Donnybrook

Due to a last minute switch the game was played on the back pitch at Donnybrook and it was the home side who settled first dominating both territory and possession in the early exchanges.

The first scoring opportunity came in the 3^rd minute when Leinster were awarded a penalty 40m in front of the posts, which their out half missed just to the left of the uprights. 2 minutes later Ulster were penalised for hands in the ruck; again the Leinster out half was unsuccessful in his attempt at goal.

For the next 15 minutes Leinster dominated the game in terms of possession, but were unable to break down the well-organised Ulster defence. From a rare break out Ulster attacked into the Leinster 22 where the home team conceded a penalty for 'hands in the ruck.' Ulster Centre and former Methody school boy, Patrick Robinson converted from in front of the posts to give Ulster a narrow 3-0 lead. 4 minutes later Robinson was again involved when he made a lovely break into the Leinster half before feeding Banbridge winger, Chris Leatham who ran in to score a try at the corner. With the conversion missed, the score was 8-0 to Ulster and remained this way until half time.

At half time the Ulster coaching team of Niall Malone and Andy Ward praised the players for their effort in the first half and reminded them of the importance of starting the second half as well as they had finished the first.

However, it was Leinster who started the strongest and just 2 minutes into the second half, they won another penalty when Ulster played the ball on the ground. The penalty was then subsequently moved 10m forward for back chat, bringing it into the range of the home out half. Again the kick was missed when it went left of the posts.

At this stage the referee spoke to Ulster about the number of penalties that they had conceded and team captain Max Porter was given a warning that if things didn't improve, he would be forced to use the yellow card. On the 40^th minute the referee was true to his word, and in fact it was Porter himself who was sin binned for a professional foul. The Ulster situation didn't improve when the team conceded 2 penalties in quick succession, both of which were converted by the Leinster out half in the 42^nd and 45^th minutes to narrow Ulster's lead to 8-6. Ulster's situation was further compounded when Porter's fellow flanker Dominic Gallagher was also yellow carded in the 46^th minute to leave Ulster with only 13 men on the pitch.

This seemed to strengthen the resolve of the Ulster players and indeed through some quick play they were able to win a penalty of their own when Leinster were penalised for not rolling away at a ruck. Unfortunately Robinson was unlucky with his attempt from 40metres out.

With Ulster back to their full compliment, they began to dominate territory and possession but were unable to work an opening to clinch a score. The final 5 minutes were pulsating with both teams attempting to create scoring opportunities that would lead to a win. Indeed, just as the referee was about to blow the whistle for full time, Leinster attacked down the left wing with a clear overlap but Ulster managed to bundle the winger into touch. From the resulting lineout the Ulster throw was deemed not to have gone the necessary 5 metres and Leinster were awarded a final scrum just inside the Ulster 22. The referee had indicated that this would be the final play of the game and therefore Leinster's last opportunity to win the match. The Ulster team was not prepared to relinquish their lead and their scrum, which had been magnificent all day, managed to take one against the head at this crucial stage, before number 8 Stephen Irvine kicked the ball into touch thereby bringing the match to an end and allowing Ulster to record a memorable win in Dublin.

Speaking after the game Head Coach Niall Malone commented: "The players must be praised for their effort throughout the game; they stuck to their task for the full 70 minutes and never allowed the talented Leinster side to settle. It would be unfair to single out an individual performance and credit must be given to the whole squad in terms of how they performed today, especially the resolve that they showed when we had men in the sin bin during a crucial period in the second half. We will now look forward to playing Munster at Ravenhill in a couple of weeks' time."

Final score: Leinster 6- 8 Ulster

Jonathan Milliken; Chris Leatham; Patrick Robinson; Stuart Simpson; Craig Gilroy; Jonathan Pollock; Nicolas Andress; Stephen Irvine; Dominic Gallagher; Max Porter; Stephen Leckey; Connor Smyth; Lee McClure; Logan McCallan; Jonathan Corscadden, Malone RFC

Gary Donegan; Jonathan Harris; Rory Sheard; Peter Starritt; Alex Christie; Lee Murphy; Adam Bratten (replaced Simpson - 68 mins)