Edinburgh suffer late defeat to Ulster

  • 9 June 2021

Ulster's Ian Madigan proved a match winner once again as the stand-off slotted home a last second penalty to claim a 31-34 win for the Irish side.

Edinburgh were ahead early thanks to Duhan Van Der Merwe's 32nd and final touchdown for Edinburgh before the British and Irish Lion joins Worcester next season.

Blair Kinghorn added another for the capital club but Ulster stormed back with touchdowns from James Hume, Iain Henderson, Stuart McCloskey, Adam McBurney - who will join Edinburgh in a few weeks' time - and Rob Lyttle.

However, Edinburgh came back themselves and thought they had won it when Eroni Sau's late try was allowed to stand by referee Ben Whitehouse after Pierre Schoeman and Cammy Hutchison fired the hosts back into contention.

But when Kinghorn missed a chance to win it with his conversion, the Irishmen raced up field to win it with Madigan's penalty.

Edinburgh could not have wished for a better start as they played their final game at BT Murrayfield before moving to the club's new purpose-built home next season..

Kinghorn released Van Der Merwe to score the opener before galloping home himself soon after as Richard Cockerill's side moved 12 points ahead inside eight minutes.

Ulster hit back on 13 minutes as Madigan's dancing feet cut Edinburgh open, with Hume scoring.

Kinghorn's crazy offload attempt five metres from his own line then sent Edinburgh into a tailspin.

Hamish Watson was penalised with a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on as he attempted to rectify his Scotland team-mate's blunder.

Henderson's strength allowed him to dot the ball down as Ulster careered towards the Edinburgh line from a line-out drive.

To make matters worse, WP Nel was also sin-binned by for his illegal efforts to collapse the maul.

Inside two chaotic minutes, Edinburgh had lost two men and seven points.

Edinburgh did well to stem the tide with 13 men but with just seconds remaining before they returned to their full complement, McCloskey galloped over from half-way after a rapid exchange of passes by Hume and David Shanahan.

Hooker McBurney refused to go easy on his future team-mates, crashing over from another line-out move a minute before the break.

Ulster extended their lead further with a tidy try that saw them explode wide through a succession of quick, intricate passes, with Lyttle left to jog over on 50 minutes.

But when the Irish province found themselves down to 13 as Michael Lowry and Nick Timoney were sent to the bin in short succession, Schoeman and Hutchison barged over to give Edinburgh hope.

They thought they had completed the turnaround when Sau raced in to score with a minute left despite a captain's challenge on Harri Morris' tackle on Lowry.

But Kinghorn's miss gave Madigan his chance to reprise his role as Ulster's last-action hero, which he duly slotted home.

live commentary 5:15 PM Saturday 5 Jun 2021

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Kick-off 5:15 PM

Edinburgh

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