Cave helps Ulster into second

Darren Cave's second-half try proved to be the match winner as Ulster ended Edinburgh's winning run at Murrayfield to climb up to second in the Pro12 table.

Edinburgh were looking to rack up a ninth straight win in front of their home fans and looked like doing exactly that as they led 14-10 at half-time thanks to a Phil Burleigh try and Tom Heathcote's boot.

Ruan Pienaar scored all of Ulster's points in the first half as he helped himself to a try, conversion and penalty, but after adding another penalty following the interval he was joined on the scoreboard by Cave on 53 minutes.

And this proved enough for Ulster to record a Pro12 double over Edinburgh, the Irish province surviving the last five minutes with 13 men after Stuart McCloskey and Franco van der Merwe had seen red and yellow respectively.

Positive start from Ulster with plenty of possession but it was Edinburgh who were first on the scoreboard as Burleigh burrowed over after nine minutes.

Dougie Fife superbly gathered a high ball and great play saw the ball recycled through plenty of Edinburgh hands before Burleigh touched down, Tom Heathcote wide with the conversion.

But the visitors weren't behind for long as following a big push for the tryline five minutes later Pienaar to dotted down, the South African dusting himself off to slot the easy extras.

Heathcote was handed the opportunity to put the hosts back in front but was wide with a 17th-minute penalty, only for the fly-half to make no mistake moments later after Ulster were pinged for holding on.

Some more good work from Fife gave Heathcote yet another kick at the posts on 24 minutes but the home No.10 couldn't stretch his side's lead as the ball clattered an upright.

But Heathcote wasn't short of penalty opportunities and on the half hour mark he did add a second three-pointer for a bit more breathing space for the hosts.

Five minutes before half-time Pienaar slotted a penalty of his own to bring Ulster to within one point, but Heathcote split the posts at the other end of the pitch to give Edinburgh a 14-10 half-time lead.

Moments into the second half Ulster were pinged for an offside but Heathcote's erratic night continued as he fires his effort from halfway wide of the posts.

Ulster go close to grabbing their second try on 49 minutes but Edinburgh stay strong and the visitors have to settle for a Pienaar penalty to once close the gap to a single point.

And moments later the visitors were ahead as Cave benefitted from a great Nick Williams break to score, Pienaar adding the extras.

Two minutes later Heathcote missed another penalty but he made no mistake on 64 minutes as Edinburgh finally made the most of McCloskey's red card on the hour mark for a challenge on Hamish Watson.

But the home fly-half's troubles from the tee continued on 68 minutes as he was short with another penalty kick that would have seen Edinburgh go level.

Ulster were reduced to 13 men five minutes from full-time as Van der Merwe was yellow carded but Edinburgh couldn't find a way through as the Ulstermen hung on

Scorers:

For Edinburgh:

Try: Burleigh

Pens: Heathcote 4

Ulster:

Tries: Pienaar, Cave

Cons: Pienaar 2

Pens: Pienaar 2

Teams:

Edinburgh: 15 Jack Cuthbert, 14 Dougie Fife, 13 Sam Beard, 12 Phil Burleigh, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Tom Heathcote, 9 Grayson Hart, 8 Mike Coman, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Roddy Grant, 5 Ben Toolis, 4 Anton Bresler, 3 WP Nel, 2 Neil Cochrane, 1 Rory Sutherland.

Replacements: 16 Stuart McInally, 17 Grant Shiells, 18 John Andress, 19 Ollie Atkins, 20 Hugh Blake, 21 A N Other, 22 Jade Te Rure, 23 Andries Strauss.

Ulster: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 Craig Gilroy, 13 Darren Cave, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Michael Allen, 10 Ian Humphreys, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Nick Williams, 7 Mike Comish, 6 Roger Wilson (captain), 5 Franco van der Merwe, 4 Iain Henderson, 3 Wiehahn Herbst, 2 Rob Herring, 1 Calum Black.

Replacements: 16 John Andrew, 17 Andrew Warwick, 18 Bronson Ross, 19 Lewis Stevenson, 20 Clive Ross, 21 Paul Marshall, 22 Luke Marshall, 23 Peter Nelson.

Referee: Leighton Hodges (Wales)

Assistant referees: Sam Grove-White (Scotland), Mike Adamson (Scotland)

TMO: David Changleng (Scotland)