HEINEKEN CUP QUARTER-FINALS: THE BRUTALITY of the contest was etched on the features of captain Rory Best's bruised face as he considered the end of Ulster's Heineken Cup odyssey in the depths of stadium:mk in Milton Keynes.
He had just closed the door on a quiet dressingroom, the scars of defeat still livid, both mental and physical. It will take the Ulster players a few days to get over this as they spool through what they might have achieved. It won’t and shouldn’t be about recrimination, collective or individual. Just a realistic appraisal of the previous 80 minutes in which the province found the Northampton Saints simply too powerful in the end.
Ulster made mistakes, forced and unforced, and spurned two good try-scoring opportunities as a spiralling error-rate ultimately proved their undoing. A wobbly set-piece platform also thwarted their ambitions.
“It was very difficult out there from the opening whistle and we did not get a chance to settle,” Best conceded. “They did not let us breathe. We were trying to get field positions but couldn’t manage that initially. We also struggled to get to their maul and lineout.
“We were also under pressure on our own ball. That is something as a forward pack we are going to have to look at.
“When we did manage to get going we put them under pressure. They were very clinical when opportunities came around. We needed a couple of chances to score one try. Northampton didn’t and that is where we need to go to be successful against teams like that.
“We are not happy going out in the quarter-final but this is a good group of guys and we will move on from this.”
It was a view echoed by Ulster’s try scorer, right wing Andrew Trimble, but while acknowledging the qualities of their opponents he also celebrated the fact Ulster had stretched their hosts with some excellent rugby, particularly in the first half.
“We played some outstanding rugby in the opening 40 minutes. We needed to put away more chances but we didn’t. They were more clinical.”
Northampton captain Dylan Hartley bore the contented smile of the victor. “We knew that we would need to batter our heads against the wall for 60 or 70 minutes, but that if we stayed true to our pattern, playing with the right tempo, they would crack. In that heat out there it was an awesome performance.”
Hartley was initially coy about the alleged fighting incident involving Ulster number eight Pedrie Wannenburg and eventually laughed it off by suggesting it would teach him not to pull somebody’s head back in a ruck.
It’s perhaps appropriate to leave the final words on a great day for Northampton to the man of the match, England secondrow Courtney Lawes, who managed to cover every inch of the pitch and contributed in all facets, especially defensively, where he made 13 tackles.
“It was a really tough gruelling day in that heat. They came back strong: we knew we had to hold on and wait for them to tire.
“It was so important to keep our composure and I’m glad we managed that.”
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