Celtic League/ Edinburgh 16; Ulster 17: A repeat of last December's Celtic Cup final and again Ulster left Murrayfield deserved victors, this time opening their Celtic League campaign with a valuable away victory.
It was Ulster's away form that ultimately cost them the Celtic League title last season and Saturday's win will have done much to imbue the embryonic Mark McCall regime with confidence.
Two warm-up friendly defeats and a combination of injuries and Ireland commitments depriving McCall of 12 of his squad led to Ulster travelling in uncertain mind, given that Edinburgh were to field a side laden with internationals.
But with the visitors' pack significantly raising their bar at set-piece time - Ulster's line-out in particular showing a massive improvement - Edinburgh were put to the sword by a combination of passion, patience and moments of exhilarating rugby.
Victory, however, was not in Ulster's grasp until four minutes from time when a sweetly struck Paddy Wallace drop-goal nudged his side in front for the first time in a contest that displayed all the rustiness of an opening-day clash.
"We shouldn't underestimate how a good performance that was against an Edinburgh team who had their internationals back. Everybody knew beforehand that we had a few problems of our own but the players who took part were magnificent," said McCall.
"In a competitive situation we saw plenty of passion and the players thoroughly deserved their victory. At times we played some great rugby and couldn't finish off some promising moves."
Most pertinent of those was Tommy Bowe's unfortunate knock-on as he tried to ground the ball over the line following a superb counterattack by the impressive Wallace just before the interval. At the time Edinburgh led 9-8 thanks to three Chris Paterson penalties and the blunder quickly became a 14-point swing.
In the first minute after the restart, Edinburgh's captain Todd Blackadder raced over for a try after a neat exchange with Allister Hogg carved open Ulster's blindside.
From then, Edinburgh had the personnel to close the game out, but Ulster refused to lie down and picked away at the home side's lead via two Wallace penalties before the young outhalf landed the killer blow with his drop.
The first half had followed a similar pattern, with Edinburgh accumulating a 9-3 advantage having enjoyed long spells of possession in the opening quarter. But after Neil Best had been sent to the sin bin for punching, the visitors, who had briefly levelled the scores via a Paul Steinmetz drop-goal, came into their own. With Jonny Bell showing some of his old magic after a year out on the sidelines with an achilles injury, Andy Maxwell and Bowe gave Ulster a cutting edge.
And it was no surprise when Maxwell won the race for a touchdown on his competitive debut.
Bowe's blunder prevented Ulster taking a lead into the break, but Wallace's boot ensured they left with the points.
Scoring sequence: 4 mins: C Paterson pen, 3-0; 6: P Steinmetz drop-goal, 3-3; 13: Paterson pen, 6-3; 19: Paterson pen, 9-3; 23: A Maxwell try, 9-8; 42: T Blackadder try, Paterson con, 16-8; 48: P Wallace pen, 16-11; 62: Wallace pen, 16-14; 77: Wallace drop-goal, 16-17.
Yellow card: N Best (25-35)
EDINBURGH: D Lee (M Pyke 40); C Joiner, M Di Rollo, M Dey, H Southwell; C Paterson, M Blair; A Jacobsen, D Hall (A Kelly 65), J Brannigan (C Smith 47), A Kellock (F Pringle 66), S Murray, T Blackadder, S Cross (D Callam 47), A Hogg.
ULSTER: B Cunningham; T Bowe, J Bell, P Steinmetz, A Maxwell (S Young 71); P Wallace, N Doak; R McCormack (B Young 71), P Shields (N Brady 79), R Moore, M Mustchin, R Frost (G Longwell 69), A Ward, N Best, C Feather (G Brown 75).
Referee: N Owens (WRU) .
