HEINEKEN CUP Ulster 26 Bath 12: DURING THE week Bath coach Steve Meehan had spoken of his memories of Ravenhill Road and slanting rain was the most prominent image in his mind. So the visitors were not disappointed last night as they arrived to a Belfast flooded in various parts and generously spilling. Welcome Bath.
From that promising beginning Ulster took heart, and with a try in each half and some pin-point kicking from the bearded Ian Humphreys they can continue in their quest for that quarter-final place, where they have not been since the season they won the Heineken Cup in 1999. Something from Edinburgh away next week could really spice up a season that is turning for the good for Ulster.
In the first half the home side were steady, and the opening exchanges were far from the sort of fireworks that delayed the start of the game as smoke drifted down the pitch. With the greasy ball and the constant drizzle, free-flowing rugby was far from both team’s ambitions, Bath squirting the ball more often than the home side.
The visitors used their props, Dave Flatman and Duncan Bell, to try to punch holes around the Ulster fringes when they were up in the Ulster 22, but Brian McLaughlin’s side coped well and there was little threat to the line.
It was only when Bath outhalf Ryan Davis and fullback Nick Abendanon were given room to run that any frisson of threat rippled through the crowd. But that was seldom.
The first Ulster try came after 14 minutes as both sides struggled to carve out a dominant platform. Fullback Clinton Schifcofske broke from deep as his team-mates kindly spun the ball left, he delayed and cleverly stepped infield where the Bath defence gobbled him up five yards out.
But right wing Timoci Nagusa, who Ulster have come to embrace as a future star, was at hand. Snatching up the ball before Bath had properly assembled, his light feet and awareness of where the opening lay took him diving over the bodies and the line for Humphreys to convert.
That took Ulster to 10-3 with the teams still evenly matched. Outhalf Davis kicked another Bath penalty for 10-6 as both teams struggled to really dominate.
Ulster went in at the break wishing they hadn’t given away the ball as often as they had, especially the two or three times they were within striking distance of the Bath line.
However, Ulster began the second half brightly and Humphreys intelligently chose to drop a goal rather than persist with small yard gains. At that point the outhalf was probably thinking points were going to be valuable in the endgame.
What he didn’t know was Ulster would go up a gear and dominate the second 40 minutes. McLaughlin had been preaching consistency all week and Ulster bore that in mind. The defence was aggressive and the set-pieces sound and Humphreys continued to make them tick.
Man-of-the-match Willie Faloon’s try from 30 yards out after hooker Andy Kyriacou had muscled himself a little space in the middle of the park took the score to a comfortable 20-7 on 52 minutes. More than that, it instilled the belief they could win. Bath started going backwards as Ulster surged and Humphreys continued to prosper with the boot for every act of Bath indiscipline.
Frustration bubbled over as Bath defended their territory but couldn’t make yardage. A stamp from Bath flanker Andy Beattie earned him a red card. But by that stage Ulster had wrestled control of the match.
“I’m very, very, very pleased with the performance,” said McLaughlin. “What impressed me is how we managed the game. We played in the right areas of the pitch. Ian Humphreys did superbly well and he was able to put us in the right places. But there were another 14 guys around him. It was a tremendous performance from the side.”
SCORING SEQUENCE: 7 mins: R Davis pen 0-3; 10 :I Humphreys pen 3-3; 14: T Nagusa try, I Humphreys con 10-3; 20: Davis pen 10-6. Half-time. 43: Humphreys drop goal 13-6; 49: Davis pen 13-9; 52: W Faloon try, Humphreys con 20-9; 54: Davis pen 20-12; 57: Humphreys pen 23-12; 76: Humphreys pen 26-12.
ULSTER: C Schifcofske; T Nagusa, D Cave, P Wallace (capt), A Trimble; I Humphreys, I Boss; T Court, A Kyriacou, B Botha, E O'Donoghue, R Caldwell, S Ferris, W Faloon, R Diack. Replacements: B Young for Court (56 mins), C Henry for Diack (61 mins; 66 mins), D Fitzpatrick for Botha (77 mins), N Brady for Kyriacou, S Danielli for Nagusa, N McComb for O'Donoghue (all 78 mins).
BATH: N Abendanon; J Maddock, M Carraro, S Hape, M Banahan; R Davis, M Claassens; D Flatman, L Mears, D Bell, S Hooper, D Grewcock, A Beattie, J Salvi, J Faamatuainu. Replacements: P Dickson for Mears (40 mins, 66 mins) B Skirving for Faamatuainu (69 mins), D Barnes for Flatman, J Cuthburt for Maddock (71 mins), S Bemans for Claassens (73 mins), A Jarvis for Bell, C Cracknell for Salvi (both 76 mins).
Referee: N Whitehouse(WRU).
