There was remarkable late drama at Kingspan Ravenhill on Friday night, as Ulster struck late to claim a narrow victory over Cardiff in the URC.
Ulster were hoping to bounce back after a humbling 39-point defeat to Clermont Auvergne in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals, though things did not get off to a flying start for Richie Murphy's side.
After just 11 minutes, Theo Cabango had gone over for the first try of the game, and Cardiff resolutely held on to their lead for almost an hour, before a try from David McCann and a penalty from John Cooney put the home side in front entering the final ten minutes.
It was during that closing period that controversy would reign - and provoke a remarkably salty reaction from the Welsh Rugby Union after Cardiff's eventual defeat.
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WRU publish hilariously salty match report after contentious Cardiff sin-bin v Ulster
With just three minutes to go, Cardiff had restored their lead thanks to a penalty from Tinus de Beer. With Ulster camped in the Cardiff 22, an interception prompted a break for the Welsh side, from which Cabango went over for what looked to be the try that would seal victory - and, with it, a hat-trick for the 22-year-old wing.
However, a TMO review revealed that what had initially looked like an ingenious interception had in fact been the result of what was adjudged to be a deliberate knock-on from substitute Rhys Carre.
Carre was sin-binned and Cooney converted the resulting penalty for Ulster to secure a dramatic 19-17 victory.
Better fps in this one, changes direction off Carre's hand before hitting the shoulder. https://t.co/AaNv3bwkn1 pic.twitter.com/PCZXq96Eqn
— Proper Rugby Kino (@RugbyKino) April 19, 2024
(The incident in question in full begins at 2:29 in the above YouTube video)
An earlier contentious incident had seen the legality of a try-saving tackle from Cormac Izuchukwu called into question.
A mind blowing try-saver effort from @UlsterRugby’s Cormac Izuchukwu 🤯#BKTURC | #URC | #RaceToTheEight pic.twitter.com/eTuYZSbTDd
— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) April 19, 2024
It's safe to say the visitors have not taken the loss well.
A quite remarkable match report was published on the Welsh Rugby Union's website, the headline of which read, 'Faletau injured again as Cardiff robbed of statement victory.'
The opening paragraphs read:
Cardiff were robbed of a first win in Ulster for 14 years, and their first win of 2024, when the TMO joined forces with the referee to rule out a hat-trick try for Theo Cabanago and instead awarded a penalty to the home side on the 22 at the other end of the pitch.
Between them the officials decided that replacement prop Rhys Carre had deliberately knocked on a pass on his 22, even though the ball spun backwards and ended up in the hands of his teammate Ben Donnell.
The result means Cardiff remain winless in 2024. Though that may be an understandable reason for disappointment, the inference that the TMO "joined forces" with referee Mike Adamson to scupper the Welsh side's chances is unlike anything we've seen before.
Cardiff coach Matt Sherratt was similarly incandescent at the full-time whistle. In his post-match interview with Cardiff's in-house social media team, Sherratt pulled the classic cliche of promising he would not talk about the referee, before spending a significant amount of time talking about the referee:
It's hard to look past the last 90 seconds, isn't it? So probably thoughts on that period. I thought it was a pretty cruel way to end a game.
I don’t really want to talk about the decision too much because I'd like to have a look back at it. Is it clear and obvious enough to chalk a try-off and it decide a game?
I think in this game there were some big decisions that went against us. Their try there’s clearly a knock on at the line out. I can see Mike Adamson has got us back to that, it's fair enough. But there's a linesman, a touch judge, stood five metres away.
At this level that's not that's not good enough, those are the calls you've got to get right. We've had the ball kicked out of our hands over the line by Thomas Young and then a real cruel decision at the end...as I said at the moment it's hard for me for me to look past that but we will look past it though.
For his part, Ulster coach Richie Murphy admitted his side had been fortunate to come out on top:
It was a strange one. I couldn't see a clear knock-on [from Cardiff]. I thought the game had gone at that stage. We were probably a little bit lucky to get the win in the end.
The result leaves Cardiff outside of the play-off and European places in 12th place, while Ulster will have to wait and see how the weekend's remaining fixtures play out to see if they can hold on to their current standing of 6th in the table.
SEE ALSO: Wales Victory Was Tremendous, But Twickenham Will Be A Daunting Test For Ireland
