Ulster 32
Glasgow Cal 15
IT is now plain and simple - to reach the quarter-finals of the European Cup, the Scottish superteams have the proverbial mountain to climb.
As the Reivers were going down to Munster, the Reds found themselves overwhelmed by the the top Irish province, Ulster, in front of a vociferous 4,000 crowd at Ravenhill.
A first-half try by centre Chris Simmers kept the Reds in with a chance of finding their second friendly win of the season, but that hope evaporated in a second period in which the powerful Ulster pack picked up the momentum and showed pace and craft behind the scrum to expose frailties in the visiting defence.
Chris Paterson attempted to provide a lead in what proved a confident Reds' debut by the 20-year-old, but a concerted period of attack brought reward for the hosts in the sixth minute when full-back Simon Mason kicked three points. Paterson levelled the scores with a well-taken penalty in the ninth minute.
Two more Mason penalties put Ulster back in front before the Scots finally exposed a gap with a try. A flowing move saw No.8 Gordon Simpson make a decisive break into the Ulster 22, off-load to Iain Jardine, who found fellow centre Chris Simmers, and he held off tackles to go over from 10 metres out. Paterson converted well from wide on the left.
From the restart, however, Ulster were back on the attack and, for the remainder of the half, they allowed their visitors precious little possession.
The Reds were dealt a stiff blow with three minutes of the half left when Ulster No.8 Tony McWhirter, who re-joined the Irishmen from Dundee HSFP in the summer, dived over after a series of scrums on the Reds' line. Mason converted to put the hosts 16-10 up at the interval.
Although still very much in it, in terms of the scoreline, any hopes of a comeback were lost in a 16-point surge from Ulster.
Two further Mason penalties, a drop goal from stand-off David Humphries and a try by scrum-half Andy Matchett, converted by Mason, had the Reds struggling to keep their head above water.
Left wing Derek Stark provided some cheer for the Reds coaches when he touched down in the corner, after a superb 40-metre break by Paterson with seven minutes remaining, but it did little to dampen the party spirits of the Belfast crowd.
Ulster: S. Mason; J. Davis, S. McDowell (S. Coulter), M. McCall, J. Cunningham; D. Humphries, A. Matchett; J.Fitzpatrick, A. Clarke (R. Weir), G. Leslie (R. Irwin), M. Rea (M.Blair), G. Longwell, A. Ward, A. McWhirter (C. McCarey ).
Glasgow Caledonians: R. Shepherd (A. Collins); A. Bulloch, C.Simmers, I. Jardine, D. Stark; C. Paterson, D. Patterson (F. Stott); G. McIlwham, C. Docherty (T. Smith), A. Kittle (W. Anderson), S. Campbell, G. Perrett (S. Grimes), J. White, G.Flockhart (J. Shaw), G. Simpson.
Referee: R. McDowell (Munster).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article