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Ulster squander commanding lead as Cardiff complete feverish comeback

By PA
Stuart McCloskey

Cardiff produced a remarkable second-half turnaround to stun Ulster 21-19 at a raucous Arms Park in the United Rugby Championship.

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The lethargic home side looked dead and buried at half-time when they trailed 19-0 but after the interval emerged a totally different outfit to register 21 unanswered points.

Iwan Stephens, Dafydd Hughes and Thomas Young scored their tries, with Callum Sheedy converting all three.

For Ulster, Jude Postlethwaite grabbed two tries and Cormac Izuchukwu another, with Nathan Doak adding two conversions.

It took Ulster 10 minutes to raise their first attack but they certainly made it count with a continuous battering of the opposition line.

Cardiff hooker Evan Lloyd was yellow-carded for persistent team infringements before Izuchukwu capitalised by forcing his way over.

Worse was to follow for the Welsh region when a strong run from Doak split the home defence to create a try for Postlethwaite before another flowing move culminated in the centre crossing for another.

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Lloyd eventually returned from the sin-bin after seeing his side concede 19 points in his absence before Ulster suffered a blow when their captain Iain Henderson departed with an injury.

The only positive for Cardiff in a dismal first-half performance was the solidity of their scrum which won a couple of penalties but they still remained scoreless at the interval.

Five minutes after the restart, the home side had their best chance for points when a neat break from Ben Thomas gave Mason Grady an opportunity.

However, the wing fumbled before stumbling into touch with the line only metres away.

Cardiff maintained their momentum and were aided by a yellow card for Ulster No 8 David McCann for a deliberate offside and this allowed them to come on the scoreboard with Stephens out-flanking the cover defence to leap over in the corner.

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McCann returned from the sin-bin and in time to see Hughes burst away from a maul for an unopposed run to the line and bring the home side right back into contention with 15 minutes remaining.

The comeback was complete when Young rolled over from a driving line-out, with Sheedy’s conversion giving Cardiff the four points.

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EllenMoody 5 hours ago
Great moments in Lions tour history – JPR’s drop goal and the All Blacks' brutal revenge

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JWH 6 hours ago
'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

Do you hear yourself? Do you have any concept of world view? Have you tried looking into why people call Ireland ‘arrogant’? Obviously not.


We started calling you arrogant when you called our captain a ‘shit Richie McCaw’. In New Zealand. On our turf. Don’t think that kind of behaviour really calls for respect, does it.


NZ don’t really talk ourselves up, if anything the rugby does it for us. No kiwi goes in the media and says: ‘We are gonna win the RWC’. However, I have found many instance of IRISH media saying that the Irish should win, without a doubt. THAT is disrespectful.


The All Blacks have played good rugby, even some of the best rugby ever, at many points in history, but I don’t think you could find a single instance of one of those players, or the NZ media, saying that they should whitewash their opponents. Ever.


Now, onto your analysis. Ireland DID choke the QF. They beat the champions, they were ranked first coming into it, a lot of players at the peaks of their powers. Its hard to say that they didn’t choke. Obviously, their preparation was just not as good as NZ, and thats all there really is to it.


If Ireland had repsected that ABs team and that QF more, maybe they would’ve prepared properly for it and won. But they didn’t.


Maybe if Ireland had won their QF last RWC, they wouldn’t have to be in the same pool as SA and Scotland. I mean, its called a draw for a reason. NZ got third last RWC, so of course they should get a reasonable pool, and they were ranked pretty highly too. If you want to talk about easy pools, look no further than Pool 3 with England, Australia, Fiji, and Georgia I think?


Now, obviously you don’t remember how that QF ended, so I’ll go ahead and rectify that. Ireland reclaimed the ball off kickoff and marched for 20ish phases into the opposition half. Savea then won a turnover, but the referee refused to give it, so play went on. Finally, at the NZ 22, after not giving up a single penatly in 25 phases of hard defense, Sam Whitelock, the most capped All Black of all time, wins the game with an incredible steal.


Now, NZ players having a go at Ireland. Do you cry when you get hit after making the first swing? We all know Sexton is a prick on the field, its just the truth. And Ioane never backs down from a clash, so he thought he should humble a player who has never won an international knockout game who thought he was all that. Don’t really see the issue, its poetic justice really.

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