Andrew Trimble believes Ulster will take a lot of “character and energy” from Sunday’s gritty 12-0 win over the Dragons at a wet and windy Rodney Parade.
In atrocious conditions, Dan McFarland’s men eked out a crucial win to go level on points with Leinster at the top of the United Rugby Championship.
Marcus Rea crashed over for the opening try in the 40th minute to give the visitors a 5-0 half-time lead before John Andrew bundled over from a lineout maul just after the break.
Nathan Doak, who picked up the player of the match award, arrowed the resulting conversion between the posts to complete the scoring with 34 frantic minutes still to play.
Trimble, working for Premier Sports, described the soggy arm wrestle as “a very entertaining game, but not entertaining from a rugby perspective”.
But the former Ireland and Ulster winger added: “This is the sort of thing you can get a lot of character and energy from.
“Ulster had to dig deep for periods, but it’s a very well deserved victory. They managed the game really well and showed a lot of resilience.
“Twelve points doesn’t seem like much, but they were 12 hard earned points.”
While Doak, not for the first time this season, walked away with the MVP medal, Trimble name checked another back and two forwards in his post match analysis.
“Stuart McCloskey rolled up his sleeves and he carried really hard,” he said.
“Nick Timoney also carried hard and Marcus Rea was so desperate to make an impact and get those turnovers.
“Ulster showed a lot of character out there and they were the team that rolled up their sleeves and got on with it. They got two opportunities and took them.”
The Welsh region never looked like ending their miserable run against Ulster, with the Dragons having not beaten the province in 11 attempts since March 2015.
Ulster head coach Dan McFarland said: “I’m really pleased. I thought we approached the game really well in the first half and had a lot of physicality playing into the wind.
“A lot of discipline as well. The second half was very ugly but the conditions were horrendous, it was really difficult to play with and without the wind.”
Next up for Ulster, who have won their last three URC outings, is a home clash with Cardiff on March 4 followed by a Interpro showdown with Leinster in Belfast on March 12.
“We’ve put together three wins now in what we would consider the Six Nations window,” said McFarland.
“Cardiff will be a very difficult fixture and then we have Leinster coming to town. That’s a huge one and the biggest test of our league.”
