Tigers won’t make mountain out of ’Hill
Ravenhill on a Friday night was once mentioned in the same breath before the fear factor was diluted by a string of disappointing seasons. At one stage, Ulster had lost four of five European ties in Belfast — but the fortress mentality has been restored.
Ten straight domestic victories have been bagged in the Heineken Cup now, meaning Leicester will pitch up tonight looking to become the first side since Stade Francais in October 2008 to capture the home standard.
A dangerous animal at any time, the Tigers have won eight of their previous nine fixtures after a stuttering opening to the season and they arrive with their backs to the cliff in that a defeat would see them fall at the pool stage for the third time in five years.
Ulster, of course, are in the same boat.
You get the feeling if anyone is ideally suited to such a death match at Ravenhill it is the storied outfit from the English midlands and the mind stretches back to this month five years ago when they faced up to similar do-or-die stakes in Limerick.
Munster were still guarding their unbeaten home record in Europe at the time but then Leicester coach Pat Howard signalled his side’s intent the week before when he dismissed Thomond as “just a field” — and the Tigers duly won 13-6.
No doubt, their successors will view Ravenhill in much the same way.
“When you put it into context, if any team in Europe doesn’t buy into it all it will be Leicester,” said Rory Best. “They have broken that [unbeaten] run at Thomond Park and they don’t have a lot of fear coming over here.
“Leicester probably won’t be bothered. They are used to that being the top team in England and all the places they have been and they will generally sell out an away ground because of who they are and what they have done.”
The full house signs have been up around Belfast since Tuesday. Momentum has been building for three years now but they are still learning painful lessons in the art of how to navigate a safe passage through the competition’s pool stages.
One of those came courtesy of the first game against Leicester when they left Welford Road without reward, despite a stirring performance and with the carrot of a losing bonus point left dangling for almost all of the 80 minutes. Unlucky was the verdict. Nonsense, said Best.
“That’s something we’ve been trying to learn over the last couple of seasons. We have been either lucky or unlucky — whichever way you want to look at it — that our neighbours on this island have shown the way in how to win European Cups and how to navigate difficult groups.
“You get a big game like this and you have to take your opportunity. That takes you another step closer to a European final or you go home and forget about it for another year and we have had that heartache every season, apart from the last one.
“I’m a little sick of that,” added Best. “This is my seventh season with Ulster and we have only made the quarter-finals that once.
“It is disappointing but the important thing is that the one we made was last year and we are a better side than we were last year.”
Time to prove it.
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