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Ulster Rugby 17 - 26 Cardiff Blues
Cardiff Blues' replacement James Down beats Ulster's Isaac Boss to the try line
Match Details
Half-Time: 12 - 7
Att: 9,672
Referee:
Venue: Ravenhill
Date: Fri 9th May 2008
Quick Stats
Tries: 7
Conversion: 4
Penalties: 0
Drop Goals: 0
0 0
Previous Meeting
Blues16 - 15Ulster
Ulster17 - 26Blues
Blues30 - 17Ulster
Blues20 - 17Ulster
Ulster32 - 12Blues
Ulster 17 Cardiff Blues 26
The Cardiff Blues beat Ulster 26-17 in their own back yard to confirm the runners-up spot in the 2007–2008 Magners League.
In a good night for Dai Young's side, Maama Molitika's try put the Blues ahead but Tommy Bowe and Simon Danielli scores put Ulster 12-7 up at the break.

Roger Davies and James Down were gifted further Blues tries and while Paddy Wallace replied for Ulster, Molitika's second touchdown sealed Cardiff's bonus point win, with the two tries from man of the match Molitika helping guarantee the runners-up spot in the table.

In addition to David Humphreys's retirement, it was also a night when Ulster bade farewell to departing players Justin Harrison, Bowe, Neil Best, Roger Wilson and Mark Bartholomeusz.

Molitika barrelled through some weak Ulster tackling to score under the posts after only four minutes and Leigh Halfpenny added the extras.

Humphreys's time was up four minutes later with Paddy Wallace coming on as a replacement. Wallace made an immediate impression with a fine pass to Andrew Trimble and the centre's offload set up Bowe for a try despite Halfpenny's best efforts.

After withstanding Blues pressure, Ulster stormed upfield to score a second try on the stroke of half-time with Danielli brushing past some weak tackles to finish in the corner. Wallace added a great conversion which left Ulster 12-7 ahead.

It was a short-lived lead, though, as the Blues scored four minutes after the restart when Roger Davies won a kick and chase out of his own half for the touchdown which Halfpenny converted. Four minutes after that it was replacement second row James Down's turn when more poor Ulster defending saw him sail through the gap to extend the visitors' lead to 19-12.

Ulster narrowed the margin five minutes after the hour when Wallace sneaked over after the Blues had lost control of scrum ball near their line, but his failed conversion meant the home side trailed by two points.

Matt McCullough went close to notching another Ulster try after his own charge down but Molitika's late second try, which was converted by Halfpenny, made the game safe.

LINEUPS SCORING SUMMARY TIMELINE
Ulster RugbyCardiff Blues
SubsScoringNameNo.NameScoringSubs


Mark Bartholomeusz 15 Nick Macleod


1T
Tommy Bowe 14 Roger Davies 1T

Replacement off

Andrew Trimble 13 Marc Stcherbina



Rob Dewey 12 Dafydd Hewitt


1T
Simon Danielli 11 Leigh Halfpenny 3C

Replacement off

David Humphreys 10 Nick Robinson

Replacement off

Isaac Boss 9 Richie Rees
Replacement off
Replacement off

Bryan Young 1 Taufa'ao Filise

Replacement off

Rory Best 2 Gareth Williams
Replacement off


Tom Court 3 Gary Powell
Replacement off


Justin Harrison 4 Bradley Davies



Ryan Caldwell 5 Scott Morgan
Replacement off


Stephen Ferris 6 Ma'ama Molitika 2T

Replacement off

David Pollock 7 Ben White
Replacement off
Replacement off

Roger Wilson 8 Xavier Rush
Replacement off
Replacements
Replacements
Replacement on

Nigel Brady 16 John Yapp
Replacement on
Replacement on

Justin Fitzpatrick 17 T.Rhys Thomas
Replacement on
Replacement on

Matt McCullough 18 James Down 1T
Replacement on
Replacement on

Neil Best 19 Mark Lewis
Replacement on
Replacement on

Paul Marshall 20 Rhys Shellard
Replacement on
Replacement on
1T 1C
Paddy Wallace 21 Jason Spice
Replacement on
Replacement on

Niall O'Connor 22 Dai Flanagan

Penalty Tries
0
0

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