Ulster Rugby v Leicester Tigers

CELTIC CUP UPDATE

Ulster A, sponsored by CD Group, made it three wins on the bounce with an impressive victory over Ospreys A at Bridgend last Friday.

Ospreys captain Morgan Morris found a gap to get over the line for his side’s third try, but the Ulster men closed the game out well in the later stages, with Houston slotting a drop goal at the final whistle to complete the win. Speaking after the game, Ulster A Head Coach Kieran Campbell said: “I thought it was a really competitive game. To be fair to Ospreys, they stretched us and played with a lot of width, a nice brand of rugby. But we probably just had that bit of dominance in our pack tonight and they found it difficult to curtail our momentum there, with the pack creating opportunities to set up attacks and take the game away from them.” With just one game remaining in the Celtic Cup campaign, Campbell also acknowledged he has been pleased with how his side has grown into the competition in recent weeks. “We were disappointed with our opening two performances, in the respect that we felt we were below par and got well beaten. The last two weeks we’ve built a bit of momentum with two really solid performances and we’ve raised it another level against Ospreys. Now the challenge is to make sure we bring it again against Connacht and finish the campaign off on a high.”

Ulster took an early lead with a Bruce Houston penalty, but the Ospreys answered back from the restart. Having made ground into the Ulster half, Reuben Morgan-Williams touched down from the back of a driving maul, with Cai Evans adding the conversion. Ulster wasted little time in responding as prop Peter Cooper pierced through the Ospreys defence to regain the lead, with Houston slotting the conversion to make it 7-10. Scrum-half Jonny Stewart nipped in to cross for an unconverted try to leave it 7-15 at half-time, and with Ospreys temporarily down to 14 men at the start of the second half, Ulster made the most of the advantage as Marcus Rea raced clear to score, with Houston’s conversion opening a 7-22 lead. From an attacking scrum, the hosts fed Dewi Cross out wide to cross the whitewash, with Josh Thomas converting, but once again, an immediate response followed with Ulster forcing the turnover and Rodney Ah You grounding the bonus point fourth try, and Houston adding the extra 2. With momentum firmly with Ulster now, winger Aaron Sexton got in for his fourth try in the last three outings, which Houston converted to extend the lead to 14-36.

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