Ulster deliver their Sunday best

Monday, April 09, 2012

Miracles do happen, though rarely.

Munster have had their fair share over the years and trailing Ulster by 19 points after only 32 minutes of yesterday’s highly-charged Heineken Cup quarter final, they needed another.

To their credit they did manage to reduce the deficit to six points but lacked that crucial cutting edge to pull this one out of the fire in the final ten minutes.

So for only the second time in the 17-year history of Heineken Cup rugby, a visiting team samples the delights of a lap of honour on the final whistle in Thomond Park. Ulster out-half Ian Humphreys has the distinction of being part of those two triumphs as he also wore the No 10 shirt when Leicester Tigers won in Limerick in 2007.

In marked contrast to events at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, where Leinster were in a different class to Cardiff Blues and blew them away with a brilliant exhibition of attacking rugby, yesterday’s game in Limerick was a real contest with a physical edge that would do justice to any international test. Ulster deservedly came out on top because they won that all-important physical contest hands down.

When Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin was a skills coach with Ireland under Eddie O’Sullivan, his speciality was the breakdown and he was recognised by the Irish players as one of the best in the business. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Ulster were so competitive in that crucial phase of the game where they killed Munster’s momentum at source.

They also succeeded in isolating the Munster ball carrier, forcing a series of penalties for not releasing in the tackle. With a kicker of Ruan Pienaar’s quality on board, that proved crucial. Three times in the first half alone he converted penalties from his own half of the field with metres to spare. Ulster’s game plan was simple but clinically executed.

Their back row in particular, buoyed by the fact that Stephen Ferris was passed fit to start, suffocated their Munster counterparts and succeeded in denying Munster any semblance of quick ball. On one of the rare occasions that they did manage a quick recycle, Simon Zebo showed what he is capable of by offering Munster a lifeline with a try in the corner. However, those opportunities were all too rare.

Defensively Ulster gave a master class and managed to hold their composure when the inevitable Munster fight-back clicked into overdrive in the second-half. Even on a ground where legendary things happen with amazing regularity, a 19 point deficit was a step too far.

Munster will have to ask themselves how they allowed that to happen. Their defence for Craig Gilroy’s inspirational try was very poor with the Ulsterman leaving three Munster defenders rooted to the ground. That first half try was the score that offered Ulster the belief that they could go on and complete the job.

McLaughlin, surprisingly demoted in the Ulster management pecking order next season, had his side wonderfully prepared for this battle and despite problems in the scrum, where they should have been policed more stringently by referee Romain Poite, they produced quality ball from all other phases. Their lineout was magnificently choreographed and apart from one spectacular steal in the second half by Paul O’Connell, Munster couldn’t get near the Ulster throw.

Ulster also denied Munster a lineout platform by kicking sparingly to touch and it took all of 22 minutes before Mike Sherry, in his first Heineken Cup start, was given the opportunity to feed a lineout. Even then that throw resulted from a Munster penalty kick to the corner. Munster repeated the dose two minutes later but on both occasions went for pre-planned moves instead of their traditional close quarter catch-and-drive and came up short.

When McLaughlin reflects on this outstanding performance, he will have reason to single out the work-rate of his front five where second row Dan Tuohy and prop John Afoa put in an astonishing 80 minute shift. Tuohy was the equivalent of having an additional back row forward on the field and this display has put him in the frame for Ireland’s trip to New Zealand in June. Chris Henry may not be an open side in the traditional mould but he succeeded manfully in frustrating Munster time and again in the contact area and as a result they were always playing catch up.

Munster will be massively frustrated that for the second season in a row the Celtic League offers the only source of silverware but circumstances are different this time around. Since that demoralising defeat away to Toulon last season, Munster have blooded a whole raft of emerging talent with Tommy O’Donnell and Sherry added to the mix yesterday.

The reality is that Ulster have advanced further this season and picked up immeasurably from their comprehensive defeat to Northampton in last year’s quarter-final. They now have every chance of progressing to a European final for the first time since that historic day back in 1999. To do so they will have to account for Edinburgh who, under Michael Bradley’s excellent tutelage, shocked four time winners Toulouse in Murrayfield on Saturday. What an achievement for the former Connacht coach.

On Saturday, Leinster advanced to a fourth consecutive semi-final with a comprehensive win over a Cardiff Blues side who looked resigned to defeat from the minute they took the field. It took Leinster only twenty minutes to establish a significant set piece dominance and once this backline get ball on the front foot they are irresistible. Some of their off-loading on the blind, in the knowledge that a support runner would arrive in the hole, was breathtaking.

Things will certainly get more challenging from here on in for the holders with a pulsating semi-final in prospect when they meet Clermont Auvergne at the Stade Chaban-Delmas in Bordeaux after they accounted for Saracens with surprising ease in London yesterday. Those two sides have met on three occasions in the last two seasons with Leinster winning twice — both in Dublin. Even with the vast inside knowledge available to Joe Schmidt from his four seasons with the French outfit, this semi final is sure to be a real dogfight.

Then again on the basis of everything we have seen from Leinster so far this season, you get the impression that the bigger the challenge the better they like it. Home