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United Rugby Championship: Late tries propel Glasgow Warriors to victory over Ulster while Gavin Coombes scores three as Munster thrash Ospreys

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Glasgow Warriors extended their unbeaten run at Scotstoun to 10 games by defeating Ulster 17-11 in a hard-fought United Rugby Championship (URC) encounter.

Jack Dempsey produced a man-of-the-match performance with Gregor Townsend looking on, with the back-rower scoring one of Glasgow’s two second-half tries. 

The battle was fought up front, with all four tries coming from the respective packs. Glasgow were first to score through Sione Vailanu in the 17th minute, with Harry Sheridan dotting down for Ulster 12 minutes later.

Nathan Doak found his range with his second shot at goal to give Ulster an 8-5 lead, which they would hold until half-time. 

Glasgow Warriors took control of the fixture in the second half as Dempsey crashed over the line with 15 minutes left to play before the rolling maul saw Fraser Brown add another late on. Duncan Weir converted Brown’s try to give Glasgow a nine-point buffer.

John Cooney ensured that Ulster left with a losing bonus point by slotting a penalty with time up on the clock. 

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The hosts set out their stall early on, winning back possession straight from kick-off and sending a kickable penalty to touch as they set up camp in Ulster’s 22.

But they could not find a way past Ulster’s tenacious defence, and a Vailanu knock-on allowed the visitors to clear the danger.

Ulster threatened when a clever cross-kick from Billy Burns nearly caught the Warriors out, but the bounce did not go Jacob Stockwell’s way.

The deadlock was eventually broken on 17 minutes when Glasgow kicked another penalty to the corner, Scott Cummings claimed the line-out, and Valianu got the downward pressure after the maul had rumbled over the line.

Tom Jordan missed the touchline conversion, and Ulster had a chance to bounce right back with a similar try to the one they had just conceded, but an Alan O’Connor offside let the Warriors off the hook.

The visitors kept building pressure, helped by a series of penalties conceded by Glasgow. The dam eventually broke just before the half-hour make when Sheridan rumbled over from close range.

Ulster continued to dominate during the final 10 minutes of the first half, but the hosts stood firm until the last play of the opening period when a high challenge by Jonny Matthews on Burns allowed Doak to kick a long-range penalty.

Strong finish

After a cagey start to the second half, the Warriors eventually got on top after bringing some international experience off the bench in the shape of Jamie Bhatti, Brown, Simon Berghan and Ali Price.

And it was another Scotland squad member who scored the points, which put the hosts back into the driving seat, with Dempsey powering over from another clever line-out move.

That was the decisive moment in the match, with Warriors taking a strangle-hold, and they stretched themselves further ahead on 75 minutes when Brown bustled over following another powerful line-out maul.

Duncan Weir nailed the conversion from wide on the left for good measure before Cooney put over his late penalty.

Gavin Coombes scores a hat-trick as Munster trash Ospreys

Munster showed no mercy as Gavin Coombes’ hat-trick of tries inspired a thumping 58-3 win over an off-colour Ospreys in their United Rugby Championship clash at Thomond Park.

The hosts dominated a first half which saw each team have a player sin-binned, with Coombes, Malakai Fekitoa, Antoine Frisch and Joey Carbery all scoring tries to put Munster 27-3 up.

Stephen Myler’s third-minute penalty proved to be Ospreys’ only score, as they were held tryless for the first time this season.

Paddy Patterson, Coombes (2), Simon Zebo and Shane Daly completed a nine-try annihilation, while Carbery kicked a penalty and five conversions to finish with 18 points.

Huw Sutton’s interception and charging run had quickly sparked Ospreys into life. Shane Daly saw yellow for a cynical infringement and allowed Myler to open the scoring.

A Morgan Morris turnover kept Munster scoreless until Carbery kicked them level in the 12th minute.

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Ospreys then fell 10-3 behind, lock Bradley Davies catching Roman Salanoa with a high tackle for a yellow card before Jean Kleyn’s inside pass put Coombes galloping over for a converted score.

That was followed by Fekitoa’s first try in Munster colours as he finished off some fine work from centre partner Frisch.

The pair combined again in the 29th minute, Fekitoa’s return pass – out of a double tackle – putting Frisch over to widen the margin to 17 points.

Despite losing skipper Jack O’Donoghue to injury, Munster continued to dominate, and a dummying Carbery darted over in the 36th minute.

John Hodnett poached possession from Iestyn Hopkins to prevent Ospreys from responding.

Fast start

Barely 40 seconds into the second half, Hodnett bounced off a tackle and fed Patterson to run in his fourth try in five games.

Apart from getting some joy at scrum time, Ospreys continued to struggle. Number eight Coombes swatted away a tackle to double his tally from close range.

Zebo got in on the act in the 62nd minute, fending off Morris after Daly’s inside pass. The latter cruised in behind the posts just six minutes later, having linked with replacement Diarmuid Barron.

Coombes spun around through contact for his third of the night. Ospreys’ lacklustre performance doing little to distract from talk of a potential player strike in Wales.