Ulster complete the great escape

David Humphreys is making a habit of breaking French hearts and on their own patch at that. He did it last March when his penalty brought Ireland their first victory on French soil for 28 years at the Stade de France, and it was his conversion in the fifth minute of injury time that silenced a normally vociferous home crowd at Le Stadium as Ulster grabbed a remarkable draw.

It leaves Ulster still hankering after a knock-out place, and they must feel very confident of facing Toulouse next week at Ravenhill. Ulster were all but counted out when Toulouse engineered a 35-21 lead going into injury time. But the never-say-die team stormed back in injury time to grab two tries with skipper Humphreys the hero.

It was at times a ferocious game with no holds barred with Toulouse picking up two yellow cards in the second half with Frank Tournaire and Hughes Moiron cooling off. But Ulster had failed to push home their advantage in the first half and turned around 19-15 down.

But they always kept in touch with Toulouse although it looked all over at the end, until they dragged themselves off their knees to grab a draw. Fabien Pelous and man of the match Christian Labit had touched down in the first period with live-wire Brad Free and Tyrone Howe replying, the latter score coming after a wonderful break by Jonathan Bell.

Humphreys looked to have given his side a half-time advantage with a penalty until a sucker punch in injury time saw scrum-half Jerome Fillol nip over for what could have been a major psychological blow.

However, Ulster matched Toulouse blow for blow early in the second half with Humphreys landing two penalties to Marfaing's single effort.

Gradually, however, Toulouse started to flex their muscles with Marfaing landing a couple of penalties and Cedric Debrosse finishing off a half-break by Alain Penaud.

That looked like that until those last frenzied minutes. First Humphreys put Bell in for a try under the posts and added a quickly taken dropped goal conversion to save time. And then in a last flurry, replacement Shane Stewart blasted up the righthand touchline and although collared, was able to ship the ball on to winger James Topping who danced over.

It was then left to Humphreys to save Ulster, and despite a horrendous cacophony of noise and booing, the Ulster skipper coolly banged over the conversion just as the referee blew for full-time. Welsh official Nigel Williams then had to be escorted from the field as the crowd turned hostile.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 5 min: Pelous try, 5-0; 17: Free try, 5-5; 26: Labit try, Marfaing con, 12-5; 31: Howe, try, Humphreys con, 12-12; 38: Humphreys pen, 12-15; 40: Fillol try, Marfaing con, 19-15; 43: Humphreys pen, 19-18; 48: Marfaing pen, 2218; Humphreys pen, 22-21; 59: Marfaing, pen, 25-21; 64: Marfaing pen, 28-21; 71: Debrosse, try, Marfaing con, 35-21; 80: Bell try, Humphreys, con, 35-28; 85: Topping try, Humphreys con, 35-35.

TOULOUSE: C Poitrenaud (P Bounday, 56); S Ougier, C Debrosse, Y Delaigue (M Lievremont, 56), M Marfaing; A Penaud, J Fillol (J Cazalbou, 70); C Califano (C Soulette, 54), Y Bru, F Tournaire (L Esposito, 76), H Moirin, D Gerard, D Lacroix, (S Bouilhou, 76), F Pelous, C Labit.

ULSTER: G Henderson; J Topping, R Constable (S Stewart, 39), J Bell, T Howe; D Humphreys, capt, B Free; J Fitzpatrick, R Weir (P Shields, 71), S Best (C Boyd, 40), G Longwell, M Blair, R Nelson, T McWhirter, A Ward (D Topping, 66).

Referee: N Williams (Wales).