Electric Humphreys brings Ulster back to life

Ulster 16 Leinster 16

Humphreys came off the bench early in the second half with Ulster trailing a poor second and 13-0 down and he managed to run their fortunes around with some slick play and experience. Humphreys made a try for Andrew Trimble and kicked 11 points when he replaced Paddy Wallace in the 47th minute.

But despite his heroics, Ulster are still firmly rooted to the bottom after Connacht also grabbed a draw with Edinburgh.

Leinster completely overran the home side in windless conditions at Ravenhill. Indeed it was embarrassing that they only managed two penalties in the opening half.

Early Leinster pressure, helped by some pinpoint kicking by Johnny Sexton, had Ulster shutting up shop on their own 22 and showing their defensive mettle.

With hooker Bernard Jackman, new boy Ollie Le Roux and number eight Jamie Heaslip making the hard yards, Ulster were on the back foot for most of the opening 40 minutes.

The Leinster pack finally broke down Ulster’s rearguard when Sexton popped over an easy penalty after prop Bryan Young wandered offside at a ruck in the 19th minute.

Ulster did break out of the stranglehold with Andrew Trimble and new boy Rob Dewey making good ground up the left touchline. But it was all too brief.

With Ulster’s lineout also misfiring, everything resorted to kind for the remainder of a lopsided half, with Ulster’s scrambling defence proving effective.

However, it took another penalty by Sexton in the 35th minute to push further his side further ahead after Ulster collapsed a maul.

No change after the break, with Leinster’s marauding pack, with new boy Le Roux still eager for work, immediately making ground into the right-hand corner, where Gordon D’Arcy was mauled over in the corner with Sexton converting superbly from the touchline.

Ulster threw on Humphreys and Justin Harrison some 10 minutes into the second half. It managed to get their dander up and they stormed back into the game with superbly-worked try for Trimble in the 55th minute.

Humphreys, who looked electric from the start, cleverly made a half break before feeding Trimble out of the tackle to go in at the posts which the veteran fly-half converted.

Ulster certainly had Leinster rattled for the first time in the game and it was the visitors who had to resort to a scrambling defence as Tommy Bowe and Isaac Boss began to buzz to increase the momentum.

The pressure told in the 65th minute after Dewey had charged into the heart of the Leinster defence, who were penalised, and Humphreys knocked over the easy penalty and two minutes later slide over a drop goal to level the game.

After a rare second-half surge by Leinster, Ulster were penalised at a ruck and Sexton banged over his third penalty with seven minutes remaining to edge his side ahead.

Humphreys then thumped over a 40-metre penalty to level up the game and at least save Ulster from yet another defeat.

ULSTER: B Cunningham; T Bowe, A Trimble, R Dewey, M McCrea; P Wallace, I Boss; J Fitzpatrick, R Best, B Young, C del Fava, R Caldwell, N Best, K Dawson, S Ferris.

Replacements: D Fitzpatrick for Young (70), J Harrison for Del Fava (47), R Wilson for Dawson (56), P Marshall, D Humphreys for Wallace (47), M Bartholomeusz for Cunningham (80).

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, capt, G D’Arcy, R Kearney; J Sexton, C Whitaker; O Le-Roux, B Jackman, S Knoop, L Cullen, M O’Kelly, S Keogh, S Jennings, J Heaslip.

Replacements: B Blaney for Jackman (62), S Wright for Knoop (28), D Toner for Keogh (78), K Gleeson for Le Roux (65).

Referee: George Clancy (IRFU).