After two EPCR Challenge Cup matches, Ulster are still very much in contention to qualify for the knock-out stages despite falling to a late and agonising defeat to Cardiff on Saturday night.
After falling behind to two early Cardiff tries, Ulster took control to take a 26-12 lead going into the closing stages. But somehow the homeside managed to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat to send the Ulster boys home on the wrong side of a 29-26 scoreline.
At first glance, leaving the Arms Park with two match points may seem like a decent return, but not when you had a grasp of five going down the home straight.
“Yeah, extremely disappointed. I thought it was a game that we had in our hands and we just let slip,” said Ulster’s Bryn Ward.
“Disappointing, but listen, the lads will regroup. We’ll recover tonight, over the weekend, get back in on Monday and ready to go take on the Aviva come Friday (against Leinster).”
Ulster took their time to settle and without firing a shot, they were 12-points in arrears.
But before half-time they clawed their way back to take the lead. But failure to stamp their authority on the game in the final quarter was to be Ulster’s downfall.
As Cardiff ate into Ulster’s lead, both Harry Sheridan and Ben Carson were sin-binned for separate incidents.
“Listen, we’re in there at half-time and I thought we got ourselves back into the game. We maybe didn’t start as well as we wanted to, but I thought we got ourselves back into the game and came out to the second half.
“I just feel like the game got away from us at times and a few decisions didn’t go our way and we just sort of got camped in our 22 at times.
“It’s hard to get out, especially when you’re with the two yellow cards as well. So, it’s definitely a difficult game and a tough one to take.”
Ulster showed great character to fight back from 12-points down, but lessons must be learnt to make sure games don’t slip away at the death.
“Listen, you said it was a shaky start for us, but we’d done really well to get ourselves back into the game.
“It was a case of us sort of playing our game and imposing ourselves onto them when we came out in the second half and sticking to what we’ve been doing well over the last couple of weeks. I feel like we started off well, but it just seemed to get away from us at times.”
Ward only made his senior debut in October and is quickly making a name for himself with his explosive carries. But despite defeat, Ward was delighted how his first full European match went.
“Yeah, really enjoyable. First 80 minutes at senior level, pro, so it was class to get out there. Really enjoyed it and keen to get back out there as much as I can.”
