Not since the win over the Wallabies in 1984, uncannily also by 15-13, has there been a Ravenhill day or night which remotely compares to this one.

By the end, it would be fair to say, Ulster deserved to have the prized scalp of the inaugural European Cup winners under their belts and go into tomorrow night's draw for the January semi-finals.

From the outset, it was clear that these Ulster boys believed they would do it and with each passing minute everyone present in the 12,000 crowd believed with them.

Credit to Harry Williams for getting the delicate mix between fired-up hostility, discipline and focus on the gameplan pretty much spot on. Not only did Ulster tackle and harry like men possessed, frequently forcing a flustered Toulouse behind the gain line, but they also adopted a shoot-on-sight policy whenever the sticks came into view in the clear belief that every score would count. And how it did.

All of this was founded on an excellent line-out - Allen Clarke hitting Mark Blair and Gary Longwell with an accuracy that embarrassed his counterpart Yannick Bru on a windy, wet night - from which the Ulster pack drove on.

Admittedly their scrum creaked a little, and they were on the back foot when Bru did connect and Toulouse rumbled, but the crack French side were disappointing.

The key, though, was the willingness and the ability of each and every one of the Ulster pack to take on their opponents and play an extraordinary amount of the game on the front foot. Every one of them was a hero, and the bravery extended to the backs as well, while generally calling the shots with a clever kicking game and an opportunist couple of drop goals was the classy David Humphreys.

Apart from too may handling errors it was throbbing stuff. Mason's first penalty attempt, an angled effort, was pulled adrift by the wind and Toulouse responded by opting for a close-in line-out, which Ulster effectively spoiled, for Humphreys to relieve the pressure.

Toulouse, with some risky handling inside their own 22, were under remorseless pressure with Andy Ward usually the focal point. When Yves Delaigue knocked on, Humphreys hacked on and was just beaten to the touchdown by the recovering Romauld Paillat.

From the ensuing, and well-recycled restart, Humphreys landed a sweet 35-metre drop goal in any case. First blood to Ulster.

Suddenly, the Toulouse posts were being peppered. Mason was just short and wide from all of 60 metres, and Humprheys was just wide with an audacious touchline drop goal from 40 metres.

Meantime, the tackling and harrying was penning Toulouse in their own territory, a couple of huge hits by Jan Cunningham leading the way. Eventually, Stephane Ougier led a break-out but Delaigue pulled a close-range penalty.

A key moment came on 28 minutes on half-way in front of the main stand, when Mason handtripped the counter-attacking Lee Stensness, and then Andy Park, Stephen McKinty and Allen Clarke swooped like vultures on their stumbling kill to crunch him in to touch. Cue the Ravenhill roar once more.

On the back of that a bigger roar followed when Toulouse fringed off Ulster's line-out and from exactly half-way, still about 15 metres to the left of the posts, Mason inched over a stupendous penalty to bring up his 100th point in this year's cup.

From a suspiciously offside-looking position, Ward intercepted a needlessly long pass with Toulouse in big overlap territory to kick long, and Park then clung on to Xavier Garbajosa like a dog with a bone to force him, ball and all, 10 metres into the touchline. The reward? From Longwell's take, the drive and a scrum, Humphreys landed another beauty of a drop goal.

Ward enveloped Stensness for a trademark turnover tackle and Mason was just short and wide with another long-ranger, but even so Ulster had their 9-0 interval buffer to a standing ovation. Could it get even better?

An ominous drive and big scrum yielded a close-range penalty for Delaigue six minutes after the turnaround, but Ward's emotive departure and wave to the gallery, followed by excellent clearing away at ruck time, especially by the outstanding Blair, and a big rumble by Rab Irwin, got team and crowd going again.

Mason then fielded Delaigue's clearance kick, returned it with a perfectly placed up-and-under to just outside the Toulouse 22, and let Fabien Pelous obstruct him to make it 12-3.

Delaigue was wide with a drop goal attempt, and Mason made a big hit on Franck Belot. Then Jonathan Bell took a short pass from Humphreys up the middle, found Derek Topping on his inside shoulder and a brilliant pick up and drive by Gary Longwell, with Justin Fitzpatrick and Gary Leslie taking it on some more, led to Ulster's best earned three points of the night courtesy of Mason's third penalty.

Just when Ulster were almost looking comfy, the tide turned.

Though Delaigue was wide with another drop goal, he landed a penalty and the one-dimensional line-out maul finally yielded a dividend when Pelous caught and was driven over; Ougier landing the touchline conversion to make it 15-13.

Ulster needed to keep their heads and did; working their way steadily upfield. The scrum and Terry McWhirter afforded Humphreys his most kickable drop goal, which he sliced wide. The out-half subsequently saw his grubber fielded and counter-attacked by Ougier, albeit with a blatant forward pass, but covered all of 70 metres crossfield for a try-saving tackle on Michel Marfaing - injuring himself in the process.

Ulster ran down the clock, and deep into injury-time the utterly unconvincing Delaigue was wide with a third drop goal attempt.

There was almost a comforting certainty that Ulster would get there.

Cue mini-pitch invasion, white shirts embracing amidst them all, and red-shirted ones trundling off as, for some reason, everyone seemed to break into an "Ole, Ole." And why not?

Scoring sequence: 11 mins - Humphreys drop goal 3-0; 30 mins - Mason penalty 6-0; 35 mins - Humphreys drop goal 9-0; 46 mins - Delaigue penalty 9-3; 52 mins - Mason penalty 12-3; 60 mins - Mason penalty 15-3; 63 mins - Delaigue penalty 15-6; 68 mins - pelous try, Ougier conversion 15-13.

ULSTER: S Mason; S Coulter, S McDowell, J Bell, J Cunningham; D Humphreys (capt), A Matchett; J Fitzpatrick, A Clarke, R Irwin, M Blair, G Longwell, S McKinty, T McWhirter, A Ward. Replacements: A Park for McDowell (10 mins); D Topping for Ward (48 mins), G Leslie for Irwin (54 mins), R Weir for Irwin (64 mins), B Cunningham for Humphreys (78 mins).

TOULOUSE: S Ougier; X Garbajosa, R Paillat, L Stensness, M Marfaing; Y Delaigue, J Cazalbou (capt); C Califano, Y Bru, J-L Jordana, F Belot, F Pelous, C Labit, S Dispagne, D Lacroix. Replacements - H Miorin for Lacroix (53 mins), C Desbrosse for Paillat (61 mins).

Referee: B Campsall (England).