Ulster left with Italian job after battling win

JOB done. Well, more or less.

After 12 long and, let’s face it, embarrassing years, Ulsterhave one foot firmly planted in the knockout stages of this most beguiling of European competitions after Saturday’s edgy, ugly but ecstatic win over the Basques.

What should be a routine win against Aironi in the Stadio Luigi Zaffanella next weekend should punch their ticket as far as April, guaranteeing them passage as one of two best runners-up at the very least.

To lose out now would rank as a failure of Devon Loch proportions. Forget Biarritz’s bizarre blip in this eastern outpost last month - that remains the one victory claimed by the Italian side at home in seven attempts this season.

Happy days, but there is a caveat. A significant one. Ulster could and maybe should be approaching round six with the possibility of topping the group and claiming a home quarter-final firmly in their grasp.

Denying Biarritz a losing bonus point two days ago would have seen to that. They had their chances but, alas, it was not to be and they must now hope that Bath deny the Top 14 side a four-try bonus point in France next week. Let’s just say that’s unlikely.

“It’s not entirely in our hands, but the fact is that we got the win in exceptionally tough conditions,” Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin said. “We go to Aironi now and we have played them three times already this year. We know how tough they are.

“They are a strong, mauling rugby side very similar to Biarritz and you only have to ask Biarritz how tough they are to play in Italy. We are under no illusions. We have got to go there, get a win and play rugby. If we get a bonus point all the better.”

Those of a glass half-full persuasion will argue that Ulster are already in bonus territory given that the second half was 47 minutes old when David Humphreys kicked the winning penalty after a hotly-debated call by Nigel Owens.

It was hard to foresee such a dramatic ending midway through that second period when, with a sodden gale howling in his favour, Humphreys succeeded with his second successful spot kick to bring the teams level.

Biarritz had chosen to play with the wind and rain in the first half in the hope that they could temper much of Belfast’s sound and fury. It worked in the sense that they led 6-0 at the break, but it is a mystery as to how they were ahead. Ulster were superb in that spell, controlling possession and territory before the break and the hits were as heavy as the weather.

McLaughlin later played down the physicality of the day’s events but there was no arguing with an attrition rate that cranked up from the first whistle when a groggy Marcelo Bosch was helped off inside the first ten minutes.

It had been the Argentinian’s misfortune to attempt a tackle on Ulster’s marauding Johann Muller and he was followed into casualty by his captain Imanol Harinordoquy and Iain Balshaw long before the end.

Ulster were left nursing their own wounded. Rory Best took early leave with bruised ribs and South African tight head BJ Botha made a similarly premature exit due to a damaged elbow. It was that kind of day. By the finish, Ulster had landed more of the blows but a haymaker eluded them.

Twice in the first half their Australian full-back Adam D’Arcy found himself chasing the ball over the visitors’ try line, only to be denied by the last defender. Biarritz were far more clinical at the other end.

Dimitri Yachvili was afforded just two kicks at goal in that period - landed both - but it wasn’t a deficit that held any fears for Ulster, who had regained parity 21 minutes after the turnaround through two Humphreys penalties.

That they didn’t kick on from there and close out the game can be accredited to the inclement weather that settled in around the hour mark and Biarritz’s best spell of the day.

Last year’s Heineken Cup runners-up picked and drove their way, very Munster-like, to within inches of the opposition’s goal line in that last quarter before the resolution of the home defence finally produced a knock-on and lifted the siege.

After that, Humphreys did the rest.

“We have talked long and hard about the trust we have in each other, in the system and in our defence and here was no better example,” McLaughlin added. “We forced the error and then we got away. We talked about the opposition, reacting to their purple patch and the fact we would get one as well.

“We did that, we took their purple patch, matched it, got the turnover and went down and got the penalty we needed in the end. Fantastic.”

It was that and more.

ULSTER: A. D’Arcy; A. Trimble, N. Spence, P. Wallace, S. Danielli; I. Humphreys, R. Pienaar; T. Court, R. Best, B.J. Botha; J. Muller, D. Tuohy; S. Ferris, W. Faloon, P. Wannenburg.

Replacements: M. Bond for Bosch (8); S. Vahafalau for Harinordoquy (40); I. Bolakoro for Balshaw (59); Y. Watramez for Coetzee (71).

BIARRITZ OLYMPIQUE: D. Haylett-Petty; T. Ngwenya, M. Bosch, L. Tranier, I. Balshaw; D. Traille, D. Yachvili; E. Coetzee, B. August, S. Marconnet; J. Thion, E. Lund; M. Lund, I. Harinordoquy, R. Lakafia.

Replacements: D. Fitzpatrick for Botha (77); C. Henry for Faloon (79); N. Brady for Best (82).

Referee: N. Owens (Wales).