Powerful Ulster extract early bonus

ULSTER got their Heineken Cup campaign off to the perfect start with a five-pointer against Aironi at Ravenhill last night.

However, while Brian McLaughlin’s side were dominant in every sphere they had to wait until the 67th minute before scoring their fourth try.

Ulster clobbered Aironi at the set-pieces and were much more aggressive at the breakdown. But the lack of patience attributed to numerous scoring opportunities going begging.

Ruan Pienaar provided the immediate stimulus for Ulster after two minutes. A scything break off the side of a ruck by the Springbok ended with Aironi being penalised and the scrum-half flicked over the penalty.

Former French fly-half Ludovic Mercier also showed his importance to Aironi when he floated over the equalising penalty from wide out on the left three minutes later.

Right from the start Ulster showed that they were keen to move the ball through the hands with the newly-restored number 10 Ian Humphreys running at every opportunity.

Pienaar, however, is quickly making acquaintances with the Ravenhill uprights, hitting the woodwork three times on his debut last week and again last night with his second penalty rebounding out of danger.

Mercier was having better luck at the other end as he steered over his second penalty in the 18th minute before Ulster scored the opening try of the new Heineken Cup campaign two minutes later.

An Aironi scrum was overturned by a great shove by Ulster and man-of-the-match Robbie Diack picked up before passing to Humphreys who in one movement flicked the ball right to the unmarked Trimble to charge over.

Ulster should have been helped by the binning of Marco Bortolami in the 28th minute for killing the ball. But it proved more of a hindrance as four times in quick succession Ulster failed miserably to punish Aironi by a lack of clincial finishing.

Pienaar finally put more points on the board with his second penalty just as Bortolami returned to action on the stroke of half-time.

Humphreys then produced the goods four minutes after the restart. A neatly-glided kick into the corner from 40 metres out looked to be well chaperoned by Giulo Toniolatti over his own goal-line.

However, he didn’t allow for Humphreys to follow up his own kick at speed and get the touchdown, much to the shock of the Aironi winger.

Ulster were well on top, but again failed to nail home their advantage as the ball again continually went to ground. Without that real killer instinct Ulster had to rely on grunt and grind.

The third try finally materialised on the hour mark with a Johann Muller burst upfield with Chris Henry and Rory Best in support.

With the Aironi defence fragmented, the ball was spun wide on the left with Trimble giving the scoring pass to Danielli. Humphreys then banged over the touchline conversion to put Ulster 23-6 ahead.

Diack looked to have grabbed the all-important fourth try in the 62nd minute but he was adjudged to have dropped the ball over the line much to the chagrin of the spectators.

However, the Ravenhill crowd had only to wait another five minutes for that bonus-point touchdown came. Another pulverising against the Aironi set-piece allowed Diack to break right, and the astute Pienaar nipped through a hole to score at the posts with Humphreys adding the extras.

That was more or less was that as both teams cleared their bench. But Ulster will need to find that killer instinct before they travel to Biarritz next week.

Scorers for Ulster: Tries: Trimble, Humphreys, Pienaar; Cons: Humphreys 2; Pens: Pienaar 2.

Scorers for Aironi: Pens: Mercier 2.

ULSTER: J Smith (D McIlwaine, 64); A Trimble, D Cave (Whitten, 45), P Wallace (Brady, 74), S Danielli; I Humphreys, R Pienaar (P Marshall, 72); B Young (McAllister, 62), R Best, capt, T Court (A Whitten, 70), T Barker (Barker, 51), J Muller, P Wannenburg (Faloon, 65), C Henry, R Diack.

AIRONI: D Demas; G Toniolatti , R Penney, G Pavan (Pizarro, G Venditti; L Mercier (Bocchino, 51), T Tebaldi (Canavosio, 45); Alberto de Marchia (Andre De Marchi, R Santamaria (Ferraro, 63), L Redolfini (Perugini, 57), C del Fava, capt (Liebenberg, 65), M Bortolami, A Benatti, A Birchall (Cattina, 55) N Williams.

Referee: Chris White (RFU)