Burns’ nerves of steel save Ulster

HENRY Speight’s try in the final passage of play earned Ulster a draw in South Africa.

Ulster coach Dan McFarland said he was disappointed not to keep up their winning start to the season but relieved to snatch a draw at the death in a ten-try thriller in Bloemfontein.

McFarland has yet to taste defeat since taking charge of Ulster but it took a Speight try in the final play and nerves of steel from Billy Burns to steer a conversion from the left flank to preserve their unbeaten start.

They now head into the Irish derbies against Munster and McFarland’s former side Connacht in the next two weeks.

“We came with the objective of winning, we felt we could and I still feel we should have won,” said McFarland, whose side defeated the Kings 28-7 in their opening match of their tour to South Africa.

“We came here looking for two wins so we are not happy with seven points. However, in the first half we didn’t play the territory game perfectly and we missed a couple of tackles. It meant we ended up in our half defending for too long.”

Cheetahs led 17-14 at the break thanks to an early try from flanker Gerhard Olivier and an effort from William Small-Smith after a superb break from the other wing Rabs Maxwane.

Scrum-half Dave Shanahan, making only his second start in the competition, kept Ulster in touch with a brace of tries after great work by Darren Cave and Stuart McCloskey.

The Cheetahs looked set for their first win when hooker Joseph Dweba and his replacement Jacques du Toit crossed but Jonny Stewart hit back and then Wallaby flier Speight’s try rescued Ulster.