Ulster win at Ravers

The long delayed Ulster- Munster showdown saw the unusual spectacle of a packed Ravenhill on a Wednesday night. Munster sent what was largely considered to be a second string team north to give the starting players from Sunday’s Heineken cup semi-final against Saracens some well deserved rest. Despite this the Starting XV still boasted 10 full international players and was not a team that was expected to roll-over and play dead.

On the other hand Matt Williams had pretty much a full squad of healthy players to pick from and fielded a strong side with only a few choices raising the eyebrows of the office-chair pundits on the message-boards. In the backs Isaac Boss and Paddy Wallace got the nod to start at Scrum-half/out-half and Dewey/Trimble were the preferred centre pairing. While in the pack the ever-improving Tom Court started at tight-head alongside returning captain Rory Best.

At first it looked as if Munster had sent Anthony Foley out to play us all by himself, but then I remembered that the unstoppable Axel was celebrating the exceptional landmark of 200 caps for his province and was being sent out alone as an opportunity for the crowd to congratulate this proud son of Munster and Ireland.

For the first few minutes Ulster struggled to get their hands on the ball and whenever they did it seemed that all they wanted to do was kick it away for Munster to have another crack at the defence. And with barely five minutes gone the hapless Barry Murphy, who must dread his games against Ulster, was substituted off the field this time with a dislocated thumb. What does Barry have to do to get through a whole inter-pro match unscathed?

Ulster opened the scoring on 10 minutes when Andrew Trimble made one of his characteristic breaks turning the Munster defence onto the back foot. He was well tackled but managed to throw a real “Hail Mary” offload which was plucked out of the air by Rory Best showing all the silky handling skills of a centre who kept the momentum going forward. Boss Recycled the ball and sent it out to a fully fit Rob Dewey who finally showed what he was signed for as he burst through two tacklers to score to the right of the posts. This got the crowd believing that we might actually win this one. However, Ulster infringed from the restart and Munster were immediately on the scoreboard with a three-pointer of their own.

The line-out though was a real disaster. Rory and the jumpers were not in sync at all and to make matters worse Mick O’Driscoll was in devastating form frequently getting in the air at just the right time and in just the right place to spoil our throws and steal precious possession. Despite this Ulster still spurned a shot at three points from just outside the 22 on the right in favour of the line-out on the line. Predicatably Munster spoiled possession from the line-out and the chance of points was squandered.

Ulster we definitely the team in the ascendancy and they were unlucky to have Tommy Bowe called back when he was clean through with the line begging several minutes later. It turned out that Andy Trimble had nudged the ball forward before Tommy gathered it.

Munster for all their strength-in-depth and pedigree were not really at the races and despite promising spells of possession they were unable to penetrate the Ulster defence and as time went on they lost the belief that they could actually cross the try-line. While they seemed able to steal possession almost at will from the Ulster Set-piece they didn’t seem to have the ability to score points with it.

Ulster on the other hand seemed to have the measure of the Munster defence and just before half-time Boss found Caldwell who like Dewey before him burst through two tacklers for a second seven-pointer.

In the second half big Ryan turned from hero to villain by getting sin-binned for stamping. But it did provide a nice opportunity for Ulster to prove to Munster that they weren’t going to score any tries as the 14 Ulstermen held out the 15 Munstermen with apparent ease pretty much breaking the spirit of the Munster team in the process.

With around 20 minutes left a penalty opportunity gave Ulster an attacking line-out in the Munster 22 and this time Andy Trimble got a chance to show why he is one of the home supporters’ favourites picking a great line that split the defence in half for a superb score to the left of the posts. Paddy missed the conversion but it was bonus points not conversions that were on the supporters minds by that stage.

Unfortunately it was not to be though with Ulster closing out the game without scoring again for a 19-9 win.

Matt Williams seems to have slotted straight into the role of a thoroughly professional coach though. Last time out against Cardiff he was accentuating the positives despite the loss this time despite the much needed win against the old rivals he was quick to point out the areas where he was unhappy and you can imagine that there were a few home truths pointed out in the dressing room at half-time and full-time.

There were positives, not least the fact that unless we really screw up and unless Connacht defy the odds in their last two games HEC rugby is virtually assured for next season.. But there were negatives too. Isaac needs to cut out some of the pointless box-kicks. Ryan Caldwell needs to catch a grip of his discipline and the pack need to get back on the training pitch and sort that line-out out.

After months of sporadic rugby at Ravenhill I can’t wait for Saturday.

Ulster coach Matt Williams said,
"It is not often that Munster do not turn up, but they did not turn up on this occasion and we should have trounced them and earned a bonus point.

"We were hugely unprofessional at times and what we did at the lineout was unacceptable.

"We have still got a bit of a job to do with this young side, who have to learn to be professional.

"I thought we let ourselves down by our own standards. We wanted to play attractive rugby and when we did we looked ok, but our backs did not get enough quality ball."

Ulster: B Cunningham; T Bowe, A Trimble, R Dewey, M Bartholomeusz; P Wallace, I Boss; B Young, R Best, T Court, C Del Fava, R Caldwell, M McCullough, K Dawson, S Ferris.
Replacements: N Brady, J Fitzpatrick, J Harrison, N Best, P Marshall, N O'Connor, M McCrea.

Munster: S Payne; B Carney, B Murphy, K Lewis, A Horgan; P Warwick, P Stringer, F Pucciarello, F Shehan, T Buckley, M O'Driscoll, D Ryan, J O'Sullivan, N Ronan, A Foley (capt).
Replacements: S Cronin, D Hurley, M Melbourne, J Coughlan, G Hurley, J Manning, K Earls.