Ulster weather the storm
Dean Richards won’t fancy coming back to Ravenhill again too soon. Opinion is divided whether yesterday’s 21-10 defeat of the unbeaten pool 4 leaders Harlequins was a bigger achievement than the 33-0 dispatching of a Leicester side packed with English World Cup winners in 2004 but either way Deano was the coach on the receiving end both times and he has got to be wondering just what it is about Ravenhill that inspires Ulster to such enormous physical feats and why he has to be on the receiving end.
After losing on the road to Edinburgh last week Ulster needed a big performance yesterday to prove that the thumping of Munster in Thomond wasn’t a flash in the pan and that this young Ulster side has the talent and the ambition to really compete against the big boys and intends to be a force to be reckoned with again in European Rugby.
As the day of the match approached the weather forecasts became more and more ominous and they were not wrong. This match was to be played out in a howling wind and freezing cold rain that would likely only get worse as the game progressed. The spectators made their preparations appropriately, extra layers, thick socks, hip-flasks and waterproofs and got ready for the onslaught.
And what a start! Ulster kicked off with the wind at their backs and Quins fumbled the ball and gave away a scrum. The Ulster scrum really lacked the presence of BJ Botha and Quins nearly took it against the head but somehow Ulster recovered the ball and fed it out to Darren Cave taking a lovely line down the narrow side. Cave caught the Quins defence napping and strolled over for a score near the posts which Ian Humphreys duly converted to put Ulster 7 points ahead with only a minute played.
The weather was making line-outs a bit of a lottery as throwing even to the front was a challenge but if both teams were struggling to secure line-out ball then Ulster’s back-row were the masters of clearing up the aftermath and successfully out-muscled and out-played the trio of Easter, Skinner and Robshaw to win turnover ball where they had no right to. The energy and determination from the Munster match was back.
The referee was making his presence felt too though and when he gave Ulster an extra 10 metres after Nick Easter mouthed off about a penalty decision. Ian Humphreys judged it perfectly and Ulster were 10 points to the good. Ulster had definitely started the right way but playing with the wind it was obvious that they needed to build up a substantial lead in the first half as scoring against the wind in the second would be a matter of ball-in-hand. As if to emphasise this the next scoring opportunity came Harlequins way when Caldwell was penalised for coming in from the side. Nick Evans stepped up but was unable to make a relatively straight forward kick from in front of the posts due to the strength of the wind and the score stayed at 10-0.
With Ulster turning over the ball seemingly at will they were always looking to wrong-foot the Quins’ defence and extend their lead Simon Danielli, returning from injury, came closest when another turnover ball was spread fast to the left wing and Danielli seemed to have made the breakthrough. However, with just one defender left to beat he chose to chip through and chase the ball to the line rather than to back his pace to beat the Quins player and with the assistance of the wind he just over-cooked it and the ball went dead.
Harlequins were rattled and resorting to trying to bully Ulster off the ball and distract them, but Ulster were made of sterner stuff and all they succeeded in doing was to gift more penalty opportunities to Ian Humphreys who successfully stretched the lead at the next one to 13-0. With Quins in disarray Danny Care was penalised for yet another infringement and the referee, decided enough was enough and sent him to the bin for 10 minutes. Humph kicked to touch hoping to extend the lead still further but 14 mas Harlequins stole the line out and temporarily relieved the pressure. It didn’t last long though and another penalty coupled with another 10m for dissent saw Humphreys close the first half out with another successful kick for a 16-0 half-time lead. The big question in everyone’s mind was would a 16 point lead be enough to see us through the second half?
The second half started with Ulster playing into an ever-increasing wind. Quins kicked off and it was obvious that kicking up-field to relieve the pressure wasn’t an option. Ulster fumbled the restart and the ref gave Quins a scrum for a knock-on. The ref was very keen to play an open game and frequently signalled when he judged the ball to be out but when the ball left the back of the scrum and Boss chased it, only for Quins to pull the ball back in to the scrum again. The ref pinged boss and Quins had their chance to start eating back into Ulster’s lead which they duly did with a successful Nick Evans penalty kick.
Ulster played the ball-in hand pick-and-go game but progress up-field was well-nigh impossible nevertheless inspired by Stephen Ferris Ulster brought play right up into the Quins half before they turned the ball over. An excellent speculative chip through from Quins left Shifcofske with no choice but to carry the ball over the try line to concede a 5m attacking scrum. Quins, back up to 15 men by now, turned on the pressure and Ulster were forced into desperate defence. With the ref finally losing patience and adjudging Ulster to have deliberately collapsed the scrum and went under the posts to award a penalty try. The conversion was easily secured and Quins were now within a converted try of rescuing the match.
Steinmetz having taken over from Humphreys at out half pushed the restart low and long to maximise the chances of keeping the ball in the Harlequins half but with the wind at their backs Quins were soon back up in the Ulster half just the same. Then came the most bizarre moment of the half. Dean Richards had obviously put in a substitution request to swap Nick Evans out for Chris Malone, but the next break in play was for a kickable penalty chance after Ulster were penalised for not rolling away. The ref and 4th official insisted on making the substitution before the kick was taken. So Chris Malone was left to take the kick which he duly missed.
Steinmetz took advantage of a momentary drop in the wind to push the 22 drop-out long and into and gave Ulster a rare opportunity to move back into the Harlequins half. Quins won the line-out but the unfortunate Chris Malone butchered the clearance kick and was charged down by Rory Best. Nigel Brady hacked the ball on through and Best won the chase to touch the ball down and push the target out-of-sight for Quins.
Into the wind the conversion attempt was impossible but it didn’t matter. Ulster continued to play the pick-and drive game to wear the clock down and then as the clock ticked over the 80 minute mark Paul Marshall booted the ball to touch for another memorable win.
A truly memorable victory in the worst conditions since the Llanelli match at Ravenhill two seasons ago, and another big English scalp for the Red hand. With Stade Francais having lost to Llanelli on Sunday Ulster will travel to Paris next week to face a team with no hope of qualification and might just see this as the opportunity to claim a first HEC win on French soil.
Apart from the score-line this was an incredible performance with every player standing up to the opposition and showing pride and passion for the Red Hand. Ferris was immense in his MOTM performance, Henry stood up well in his first competitive start for Ulster, Darren Cave goes from strength to strength and not one player took a backward step in the face of all the mighty Quins could throw at them.
Negatives, well we really missed BJ Botha at scrum time and Paddy Wallace took another knock to the head which makes him a worry for next week. Although the line-outs were poor it was as much a symptom of the conditions as anything else Quins losing five of their eight throws.
Roll on next week!!!!!
Ulster: (15-9) Clinton Schifcofske; Andrew Trimble, Darren Cave, Paddy Wallace, Simon Danielli, Ian Humphreys, Isaac Boss
(1-8) Justin Fitzpatrick, Rory Best (Capt ), Tom Court, Ed O’Donoghue, Ryan Caldwell, Stephen Ferris, Kieron Dawson, Chris Henry
Replacements:(16-22) Nigel Brady, Bryan Young, Matt McCullough, David Pollock, Paul Marshall, Paul Steinmetz, Bryn Cunningham
Harlequins:(15-9) Mike Brown; Tom Williams; Gonzalo Tiesi; Jordan Turner-Hall; Charlie Amesbury; Nick Evans; Danny Care
(1-8) Ceri Jones; Chris Booker; Mike Ross; James Percival; George Robson; Chris Robshaw; Will Skinner (Capt); Nick Easter
Replacements:(16-22) Aston Croall; Mark Lambert; Jim Evans; Tom Guest; Andy Gomarsall; Chris Malone; Epi Taione
