Ulster says no...that won’t do in the final

As the last step along the road to a Heineken Cup final, this was not the procession many believed Ulster would enjoy against Edinburgh on Saturday.

Yet this hard-earned victory over Michael Bradley’s young, ambitious side did not make it any less enjoyable for Brian McLaughlin as his Ravenhill outfit celebrated in the Dublin twilight.

Having heroically dumped Munster out in the quarter-finals at Thomond Park, approaching this semi-final as odds-on favourites in a seemingly one-sided contest against Celtic League strugglers was always going to be a difficult follow-up act for Ulster. Indeed, it was not until man of the match Ruan Pienaar slotted his fifth penalty of the game in the 76th minute that Edinburgh were left truly out of reach at 22-12, rendering the Scots’ superb late converted try merely a consolation effort.

Yet scrum-half Pienaar and his excellently marshalled pack had ensured throughout that Ulster stayed, for the most part, one step ahead of their rivals.

Edinburgh, quarter-final slayers of Toulouse, were bright, skilful and inventive but lacked the killer instinct to convert numerous well-crafted try-scoring opportunities, not least when a man up in the final 10 minutes of the first-half following the sin-binning of Ulster full-back Stefan Terblanche.

McLaughlin is keenly aware his side will need to improve if they are to succeed at Twickenham in three weeks because if they were grateful for Edinburgh’s lack of cutting edge they will be up against some of the sharpest knives around when Leinster come at them with ball in hand and giving them the possession they presented both the Scots and Munster will be ruthlessly punished.

Calling Ulster’s performance “very, very disappointing”, McLaughlin said: “The guys know they didn’t perform at their best level... there is a lot more in them and we’ll look forward to showing that in Twickenham in a few weeks.

“We have to keep working away... playing a little bit more rather than kicking it away on first phase. We have to look at holding the opposition up and trying to put the ball in behind.

“If you are playing Leinster, the way they defend the back three is completely different, so what you are going to do on those days would change dramatically. That’s a matter for us to sit down as coaches, look at, assess and then work on what we think we have to work on.”

For now, though, there is a victory to savour for Ulster and the massed hordes who formed the majority of the 45,147 crowd and roared on their province with a deafening volume. None will savour it more than McLaughlin, who having re-ignited the Ulster flame over the last two seasons will be moved aside in the summer to head up their academy while New Zealander Mark Anscombe takes over the reins as head coach.

“It’s a fantastic achievement for Ulster rugby and for me,” McLaughlin said. “I’m pleased as punch with the effort and with the support the players have given me and Ulster rugby. It has been a great journey and no better way to finish off than at Twickenham.”

McLaughlin should also be immensely proud of his pack, who made light of the absence of suspended All Black tighthead John Afoa and dominated a scrum supposed to have been a key advantage for Edinburgh.

Given the current angst in Ireland about the lack of decent homegrown number threes, Declan Fizpatrick’s excellent performance standing in for Afoa against Scottish Test loose head Allan Jacobsen in just his second start of the season was encouraging.

Ulster’s scrum as a unit was superb and influential on the outcome, Fiztpatrick’s work on Jacobsen handing Pienaar his first shot at goal from the halfway line in the sixth minute, the South African judging the swirling winds to perfection to get the first three points of the game.

And nine minutes later it was a big drive from the scrum that launched Pedrie Wannenburg off the back to storm over the line for Ulster’s only try. Pienaar converted that and added four more penalties to see off an Edinburgh side that will rue their missed chances but benefit long-term from this exposure to clinical cup rugby in front of a partisan crowd.

Bradley was another proud coach but the former Ireland scrum-half was equally impressed with Pienaar.

“First of all, he’s playing behind a pretty strong pack, which can dictate where the space is on the pitch. Then you have to be very good to exploit it and physically he’s a very tall, lean man and he’s very strong and he’s got some fantastic touches around the park. He’s a very dangerous rugby player never mind kicker so, he’s just quality, he oozes confidence – at out-half and scrum-half.

“The test for Ulster and for Pienaar will be on May 19 when they won’t be going forward against Leinster or Clermont. Then you’ll see the quality come through and that will be a big test.”

ULSTER: S Terblanche; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, C Gilroy; P Jackson, R Pienaar; T Court (P McAllister, 78), R Best, D Fitzpatrick (A Macklin, 66), J Muller, capt., D Tuohy, S Ferris (L Stevenson, 78), W Faloon (R Diack, 74), P Wannenburg

Yellow card: Terblanche 29-39 minutes

Replacements not used: N Brady, P Marshall, I Humphreys, A D’Arcy

EDINBURGH: T Brown; L Jones (J Thompson, 70), N De Luca, M Scott, T Visser; G Laidlaw — captain, M Blair; A Jacobsen (K Traynor, 78), R Ford, G Cross (J Gilding, 73), G Gilchrist (S Turnbull, 78), S Cox, D Denton, R Rennie (R Grant, 57), N Talei.

Replacements not used: A Kelly, C Leck, P Godman

Referee: Romain Poite (France).