Ulster grind it out as Pienaar makes Castres pay penalty

Castres 8 Ulster 9

Well, it did! Big time.

Instead of hosting one of the other seven big guns at what would have been a newly-refurbished Ravenhill, Ulster are on the flight to London in the quarter-finals against Saracens after a nerve-jangling finale in the pool stages.

Anscombe, though, is not going to weep over it and instead is happy enough to be there as he knows that if Ulster can win at Thomond Park, they can win anywhere.

“We fought for an ugly victory, but it was a victory. It was very flat and there was nothing about us in that first half, but the second half we turned it around for a tough win. We are really proud of the guys and the way they went about their week,” said Anscombe, who now knows that if his side defeats Saracens they’ll be on home soil against either Toulon or Leicester in the semi-final.

Meanwhile, it will be a meeting of friends with Sarries head coach Mark McCall coming face-to-face with his former Ireland and Ulster midfield partner Jonny Bell, now defensive coach at Ravenhill.

While a venue has still to be arranged, Saracens’ five-pointer over Michael Bradley’s Edinburgh was supposed to be the last at Vicarage Road, but that might be put on hold. Saracens have played at Wembley and MK Stadium while they are not averse from pulling a plum from the pie like Newlands Stadium in Cape Town where yesterday’s final Pool 1 game was originally scheduled to be played until Edinburgh pulled the plug.

Ulster were never really going to get that vital bonus-point win at the Stade Pierre-Antione on Saturday, particularly after a first half that saw their line-out fire blanks and a failure to utilise a strong wind blowing down the field.

When Ulster’s defence went on leave to concede a try to centre Rémi Lamerat in the eighth minute it was always going to be a dogfight. Ulster went in 8-6 in arrears at the interval, but a third Ruan Pienaar penalty in the 63rd minute proved decisive in the end.

Two things emerged from the game. Firstly if you have the current best scrum-half in the world, you play him in the number nine jersey, and second, Chris Henry will wear the Ireland number seven jersey when they play Wales on February 2.

While skipper Henry was outstanding in everything he did, particularly at the breakdown, Pienaar never really looked happy at fly-half. It was when young Ireland prospect Paddy Jackson came on in the 55th minute and Pienaar reverted to scrum-half that saw them take command of the game.

Castres, fourth in the Top 14, were looking for a springboard into their next league clash, but Ulster had tightened up their game after the interval and controlled the final 20 minutes to finally notch their first Heineken Cup victory on French soil at the 15th attempt.

It certainly pleased hooker Rory Best, but he knows only too well that Ulster will have to improve before heading to London in April.

“There are a lot of things that this team has done this year, and now we have won away in France for the first time and then topped the group. We don’t see that as a monkey off our back, but we can look back and say that we did two things we wanted.

“We set out our goals at the start of the season and a home quarter-final was one of them. We didn’t do that but it was a good Castres team and a very difficult place to go to and win.

“Our scrum fired really well but we failed to take advantage of the wind and unfortunately our line-out was way, way off.”

“It should not be under-estimated the character of the team to work things out in the second half when the whole pack lent their weight. It was that vital work in the set-piece in the second half that got us that victory. But we will have to do better if we are to progress,” said Best who also praised Pienaar for his kicking.

“In Ruan we have a world-class goal-kicker. The beauty is that when you slog your guts out up front knowing that when you get a penalty there is a chance Ruan will put it over. It took a lot of character to get us into the lead and then to defend so well.”

Castres scorers: Tries: Lamerat. Pens: Kockott.

CASTRES: Bernard, Evans, Baikeinuku, Lamerat, Garvey, Tales, Kockott, Forestier, Rallier, Peikrishvili, Rolland, Samson, Babillot, Faasalele, Wannenburg.

Replacements: Andreu for Baikeinuku (51), Bonnefond for Lamerat (62), Lacrampe for Kockott (55), Taumoepeau for Forestier (45), Mach for Rallier (61), Lazar for Peikrishvili (53), Tekori for Rolland (70), Bornman for Babillot (55).

Ulster scorers: Pens: Pienaar 3.

ULSTER: Gilroy, Trimble, Cave, Wallace, Allen, Pienaar, P. Marshall, Court, Best, Afoa, Stevenson, McComb, Diack, Henry, Wilson.

Replacements: Jackson for P. Marshall (55), Henderson for Wilson (28).

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales).