Leinster apply decisive pressure after interval

VICTORIES for the visiting team at Ravenhill have been sufficiently infrequent for the last 14 years to make them notable. Leinster achieved the feat two seasons ago the first win for any province over Ulster on their home soil for 12 years. Last Saturday, Leinster did it again and so made a successful opening defence of the Interprovincial Championship, a competition sponsored by Guinness.

In the end Leinster had 10 points to spare and that was a reasonable enough reflection on the trend of a match that produced 60 points, the highest number ever scored in encounters between the provinces who first met 122 years ago.

This match will not, however, go down as being among the most memorable. But it was of course a very satisfactory outcome for Leinster and their fourth successive victory over Ulster.

The win, rather than the manner of it, was what pleased Leinster manager Jim Glennon and coach Ciaran Calian. "You will always be happy to come away from that ground with a win and we are very pleased to have got it," said Glennon. Those sentiments were endorsed by Calian who said: "I was happy to win but a bit disappointed in aspects of our performance. There is no doubt our best phase was 25 minutes after half-time. We won the match in that period and played our best rugby."

The play-for-pay revenue sharing that is representative rugby in this era has changed the social fabric of this series and much else. Gone are the days of the old bonhomie that was an integral part of the championship. That never diminished the level of endeavour or blunted the competitive edge, granted that interprovincials in the third week of September represent a very early start to the series and 13 players were new to the championship. Making due allowances for such factors, the standard of performance in this match did nothing to suggest that money makes for higher standards. But there was willingness to be creative and the sides deserve credit for that.

A point advantage, 16-15, at the interval did not bode well for Leinster after they had played with the wind. The Ulster pack had done well in the task of containment. Leinster turned over a lot of possession and Ulster had the capacity to take advantage of it. The industry of Stuart Duncan was especially effective. They had, too, done well in the line-out, an area in which proficiency from either side was not a notable characteristic.

The initial phase was an exchange of penalty goals with Stuart Laing landing one for Ulster and Richard Governey two for Leinster before Ulster got a try with wing James Topping yet again revealing his determination and scoring capacity when in possession close to the line. That score came after Leinster had missed touch and the ball was played back deep into their territory. Laing missed the conversion and had hit an upright with a penalty attempt. Governey kicked his third penalty before Stephen Ritchie scored Ulster's second try.

That came as a direct result of perceptive play by centre Mark McCall and his performance underlines yet again his worthiness to be included in the Ireland squad. Laing converted Ritchie's try and Ulster led 15-9. It was not an imbalanced scoreline on the general trend of play. But five minutes from the interval, Leinster replied with a crucial try when full-back Peter McKenna came forward to take a pass from Governey after the outside-half had made a fine break. Governey converted and Leinster thus led at the break.

Niall Hogan, a late replacement for Alain Rolland at scrum-half, used the ball well behind his pack in the second half and Governey emerged from his first interprovincial with many credit marks. McKenna was another to impress as was Denis Hickie.

Ulster's frailty up front was exposed and Leinster reaped the harvest. McKenna scored his second try alter a pass from Kurt McQuilkin nine minutes after the interval. Governey's attempted conversion was blocked but he added the points to his side's third try which came from Steve Jameson as Leinster drove over the Ulster line and he also converted a try by Spicer after good work by Chris Pim. Thus Leinster led 35-15 with 18 minutes remaining. They might have added to the margin.

They scorned two easy penalty chances to opt for scrums and then Ulster got a try from Duncan in the 66th minute with Topping in the van of its creation. Laing converted and added a penalty. But Leinster survived with relative comfort.