HEINEKEN CUP POOL SIX Leicester 20 Ulster 9:SINCE LIFTING the European Cup in 1999, this tournament must feel like a perpetual lesson for Ulster. Once again on Saturday at Welford Road, the province were made to feel like naive students, as a battle-hardened Leicester Tigers demonstrated, not for the first time in the Heineken Cup, how to earn victory from an encounter that could, for a good 60 minutes, genuinely have gone either way.
That the home side managed to turn opportunity into victory without coughing up a losing bonus point – that could have a huge effect on the outcome of what’s proving to be an extremely competitive pool – rammed home the lesson even further.
“How long do we need to keep learning that you have to hold onto the rugby ball?” sighed coach Brian McLaughlin afterwards. “We played with a lot of pride but pride is a given with this Ulster team. You expect Ulster to play with pride, you expect Ulster to play with passion. But we need to learn how to put teams away when given the opportunity.”
With captain Johann Muller excelling, Ulster won the battle of the lineout comprehensively, just about survived in the scrum in the absence of John Afoa and defended every bit as well as Leicester until Toby Flood’s grubber kick outfoxed their defensive line to allow Matt Smith to score the try that decided the game.
It was 9-9 at half-time, with Ian Humphreys kicking three penalties from three, and Flood three from four, in a period dominated by the whistle of Romain Poite.
Flood then put his side in front for the first time five minutes after the break and not long after, Humphreys, quite explicably on his return to Welford Road, missed the easiest penalty he had been presented with all night, from 30 yards out in front of the posts.
It was the beginning of the end for Ulster. They twice came close to dismantling the Leicester defensive system – their best defensive performance of the season so far according to Richard Cockerill – when Craig Gilroy, down the left, and Darren Cave, down the right, were a couple of inches away from breaking clear.
Yet when the game’s opening, and indeed only, try came, it was Leicester who scored it. Smith’s effort came not from a moment of magic, or a piece of individual brilliance, but at the end of a 10- minute spell where Leicester played their rugby deep in the Ulster half, remained patient in possession and refused to do anything even mildly risky with the ball. Eventually, after a couple of powerful bursts by Thomas Waldrom and Alesana Tuilagi at the heart of the Ulster defence, they worked half a metre of space out wide for Flood chip through for Smith to finish off the both the move, and in effect, the game.
Despite this defeat, all is not yet lost for Ulster. With back-to-back games coming up against Aironi when the competition resumes in December, Ulster have an opportunity collect nine or 10 reasonably comfortable points at precisely the same time as Leicester and Clermont Auvergne are, presumably, bashing each other about.
“We’re still in with a chance,” said Muller, Ulster’s impressive captain. “But the time for learning for us is coming to an end now. We’ve got to take the opportunities we’re creating and if we want to be a champion side, that’s exactly what they do. They take their chances.”
As Muller says, it’s high time those kinds of lessons were absorbed.
Scoring sequence: 2 mins:Humphreys pen 0-3; 8: Flood pen 3-3; 10: Humphreys pen 3-6; 17: Flood pen 6-6; 19: Humphreys pen 6-9; 22: Flood pen 9-9 (half-time 9-9); 45: Flood pen 12-9; 68: Smith try 17-9; 78: Flood pen 20-9.
LEICESTER: G Murphy (capt); H Agulla, M Smith, A Forsyth, A Tuilagi; T Flood, S Harrison; M Ayerza, G Chuter, D Cole, L Deacon, G Parling, T Croft, J Salvi, T Waldrom. Replacements: N Morris for Forsyth (18 mins); G Skivington for Parling (53 mins); M Castrogiovanni for Cole, B Youngs for Harrison (both 58 mins); S Mafi for Croft, B Stankovich for Ayerza (75 mins).
ULSTER: S Danielli; A Trimble, D Cave, N Spence, C Gilroy; I Humphreys, P Marshall; T Court, R Best, D Fitzpatrick, J Muller (capt), D Tuohy, S Ferris, C Henry, P Wannenburg. Replacements: A D'Arcy for Danielli, A Macklin for Fitzpatrick (both 69 mins); P Jackson for Humphreys (75mins).
Referee: R Poite(France).
