Contepomi and subs make the difference

Leinster 30 Ulster 23: The season needed this. Unlike in the old interpro days, they weren't meeting on the first weekend in September when as rusty as an old Japanese car or with all their frontliners still in the pit lane, but rather when finely tuned after three outings apiece.

Throw in a good-sized crowd of 6,000-plus comprising a vocal Ulster contingent, a billiard-table surface, plenty of needle and, unfortunately for a durable, stickable Ulster, it all contrived to bring about Leinster's best performance of the season.

At 20-20 with 10 to go, against the run of play, it was anybody's game.

But Leinster had played throughout with the greater vision and continued to do so. As expected, their higher-impact bench and collection of gamebreakers swung the day, the outstanding Felipe Contepomi probing away at an increasingly porous defence for Denis Hickie to pick up Eric Miller's offload and wriggle over like a weasel.

Contepomi was given the benefit of the doubt with a decidedly dubious conversion, which some of those in a direct line behind the posts (but not the touch judges) deemed wide, and tagged on a penalty for a six-from-seven, 20-point haul.

Ulster at least manufactured a bonus point thanks to a 55-metre penalty by David Humphreys to give them something from a cracking good advertisement for Irish rugby and the Celtic League.

A contented Michael Cheika, munching an apple, was particularly pleased with the first 25 minutes of the second half, when Leinster faced into the wind with an ostensibly insufficient seven-point buffer and continually took the game to Ulster.

"When we came into the sheds we said we wanted to play a certain way and they went out there and did it, and that's the first time we've really done that with a bit of consistency," said the coach. "We've got to go out and do that for longer now to beat Munster next week."

Turning over the ball two minutes in, Leinster had been punished when Hickie failed to control Kieran Campbell's box kick for Paddy Wallace to pilfer a soft seven-pointer.

"Every week we've gone behind in the first five minutes," bemoaned Cheika. But the response, and again when Ulster drew level in the 70th minute, was particularly encouraging.

"These blokes have got character. They don't want to lose. They want to keep winning."

Leinster took the game up the middle, giving them options either side, and with Ulster's defence pushing up in a flat line, Leinster found plenty of space in behind by putting boot to ball.

And when Wallace was up in the line Shane Horgan launched a towering Garryowen that Keith Gleeson gathered on the bounce. Though Hickie seemed to be driven over, from the ensuing scrum and patient attacking, Ciarán Potts forced his way over to augment a brace of penalties by Contepomi.

Miller made a big impact after his half-time introduction, as did all the home bench.

Leinster played much the better rugby overall and were much the more positive and proactive team.

Yet though Bryce Williams impressed with his aerial skills, Leinster's lineout malfunctioned again, and with Ulster akin to a dog with a bone, Leinster couldn't shake them off.

The game was there for Ulster, too, when they cleverly worked Tommy Bowe through the Leinster midfield and the ever-dangerous and alert Humphreys - still seemingly running as well as ever - switched the point of attack and laid on a third try in two games for Neil Best with ribbons on it.

"I think Leinster deserved to win," conceded Mark McCall magnanimously and truthfully, although that said, he was a little peeved that Ulster had a good chance of winning.

"We took a few wrong options then," he said, no doubt in reference to one call for a long throw over the top that Gleeson snaffled in midfield.

"We've just said to the guys it will probably be the most important video we'll watch all season. I know we made three calls that weren't the smartest calls of all time."

When Gordon D'Arcy took Tommy Bowe on the outside and nearly scored, the force was back with Leinster. In other match-ups too, Leinster players came out well, notably at fullback, where the secure and confident Girvan Dempsey outshone Wallace, who still looks a gifted outhalf playing out of position.

It was also Gleeson's best performance since his year-long absence from the game, leading the defence up aggressively and making his tackles more convincingly than Neil McMillan did, making intelligent decisions on the ball, especially in open play.

"They (the Ireland selectors) leave him out at their own peril," observed Cheika.

"As a team we came up against a Leinster side who probably played their best rugby of the season," conceded McCall, "and we still managed to come away with a bonus point and still in passages played some decent rugby."

But not, he admitted, consistently enough or for long enough, and defensively they were a little porous.

Still, no less than Cheika after three consecutive home wins, McCall would have taken three wins out of four and a bonus point here given three of their games have been away from home.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 2 mins: Wallace try, Humphreys con 0-7; 5: Contepomi pen 3-7; 17: Contepomi pen 6-7; 22: Potts try 11-7; 37: Contepomi pen 14-7 (half-time 14-7); 48: Humphreys pen 14-10; 52: Contepomi pen 17-10; 66: Humphreys pen 17-13; 68: Contepomi pen 20-13; 70: N Best try, Humphreys con 20-20; 75: Hickie try, Contepomi con 27-20; 79: Contepomi pen 30-20; 84: Humphreys pen 30-23.

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; D Hickie, S Horgan, F Contepomi (capt), R Kearney; C Warner, G Easterby; R Corrigan, B Jackman, W Green; B Williams, B Gissing; C Potts, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: B O'Meara for Easterby (33 mins), E Miller for Potts (half-time), D Blaney for Jackman, D Dillon for Gissing, G D'Arcy for Kearney (all 67 mins). Not used: K Lewis.

ULSTER: P Wallace; T Bowe, A Trimble, K Maggs, J Topping; D Humphreys, K Campbell; J Fitzpatrick, R Best, S Best (capt); J Harrison, M McCullough; N Best, N McMillan, R Wilson. Replacements: R Frost for McCullough, B Young for Fitzpatrick (both 60 mins), T Howe for Topping (64 mins), P Shields for R Best (67 mins). Not used: C Feather, R Spee, A Larkin. Sinbinned: B Young (79 mins).

Referee: Olan Trevor (IRFU).