At the end of a week in which Danny Cipriani left a club for the fifth time, Gloucester’s entertainment value did not drop as they somehow emerged victorious in a mad, marvellous match they had already won and lost. If neither side offered much evidence they will challenge for Exeter’s title, it was an antidote to the stodge of the autumn, even if at times it lived up to advert at the ground for comedy theatre.
An example came at the end of a period when Gloucester had a two-man advantage, with Rob Herring and Alan O’Connor in the sin-bin for bringing down driving mauls that were close to Ulster’s line. It’s a sign of where the modern game is that the home side struggled to adapt to something they had not trained for, unable to get hold of the ball for five minutes and then failing to achieve width.
Herring and O’Connor were standing on the touchline when Lloyd Evans, the first-choice outside-half after Cipriani’s departure, threw a pass without looking and it bounced off Jordie Reid. The flanker picked up the ball and threw it forward to Evans who caught it and was promptly penalised.
John Cooney decided to burn up the remaining sin-bin seconds by taking aim at the posts from just inside his own half. As he approached the ball, it fell over and, as there was no time left for a reset, Gloucester were awarded a scrum to end a period in a game in which both sides enjoyed periods of supremacy without either taking control.
Gloucester made a strong start when Chris Harris evaded Ulster’s midfield 45 metres out and started a move that ended with Mark Atkinson floating a long pass that gave Louis Rees-Zammit the chance to gallop beyond the tackles of Matt Faddes and Sean Reidy and make the line.
Ulster were level within four minutes. Billy Burns, returning to Kingsholm, should have provided a scoring pass to Reidy but the flanker slipped. Three phases later, Burns detected Atkinson pushing up in defence and the outside-half stepped into the space the centre had vacated to score.
Both sides had lost their opening round matches, with Gloucester taking such a below-strength team to Lyon that only three of the starting line-up remained. Opportunities were snatched at and for all the moments of individual brilliance, not least from the two full-backs, Kyle Moyle and Michael Lowry, there were numerous mistakes and a lack of discipline at the breakdown.
Gloucester regained the lead through an Evans penalty before finding salvation via the driving maul. Herring saw yellow after Atkinson had been in possession as the backs joined in but it was O’Connor’s offence that was deemed worthy of a penalty try.
The match was there for the taking for Gloucester but they are not a team to make their supporters feel secure. Ulster scored the only points when the home side were down to 13 men thanks to a Cooney penalty as Ciaran Knight fell on the centre, Stuart McCloskey, after the whistle had blown. It was a festive gift, but when Atkinson finished off a driving maul two minutes after the restart following Evans’s long penalty touchfinder, Gloucester led by 14 points.
Surely not even Gloucester could blow it. They tried and very nearly did. Cipriani was not known for his tackling, but the home defence was no more secure in his absence. When Cooney sniped from a ruck and found the No 8 Nick Timoney, Lowry skipped into space and finished from 35 metres.
Ulster sensed vulnerability. They were level before the hour when Rees-Zammit deliberately knocked the ball on near his line with James Hume free on the right, although it took the television match official to convince the referee the act merited a penalty try as well as a yellow card. From then on, there was only one winner.
Cooney’s 45-metre penalty on 65 minutes put Ulster ahead for the first time and the scrum-half secured a bonus point and a likely victory with a break from inside his own half after Jacob Stockdale fumbled a kick, only for Gloucester to lose the ball after they secured it.
Top 14 matches this season have been littered with yellow cards and Alexandre Ruiz sent a fourth player to the sin-bin when Ethan McIlroy, less than a minute after coming on, slapped away Rees-Zammit’s scoring pass to Moyle. This time galvanised Gloucester knew how to work a numerical advantage and four minutes after the clock had reached zero, George Barton settled a bonkers contest.