Ulster fight back falls short against La Rochelle in empty Aviva
PRIVATE AFFAIR: La Rochelle’s Uini Atonio with Sam Carter of Ulster, in front of empty stands at the Aviva Stadium. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Ulster’s week started with an embarrassing loss in Sale, went downhill with the shambolic loss of home venue for this second Heineken Champions Cup tie, and ended with a defeat that swung from catastrophic to heroic.
Trailing 29-0 at the interval, they somehow found their feet and their wits after the break, so much so that they scored four tries and claimed a second bonus point with John Cooney’s last-gasp penalty kick.
That may be crucial in the long run. Seven points was sufficient for Stade Francais and Toulouse to make the knockout stages last term and Ulster still have two games to play in these pool stages post-Christmas.
For Ronan O’Gara, who watched on from the stands again due to his recent sideline ban, there will be relief in holding on for a second straight win in this competition but frustration in being unable to score a fourth try and claim a fifth match point.
Ulster will only hope that their recent wobble is over.
Being nilled in England’s northwest must have felt like the lowest of lows for Dan McFarland’s side but the freezing temperatures that have held this island in its grip ensured that their sense of angst was only just beginning.
English referee Luke Pearce flew into Belfast on Friday afternoon and promptly declared the Kingspan Stadium pitch to be frozen and unplayable and, despite Ulster’s pleas for more time or a Sunday shift, the end result was the move down south.
Even that wasn’t straightforward.
The RDS is the province’s officially designated ‘second’ ground for such emergencies but the game was eventually played in the Aviva Stadium instead and it’s probably safe to say that we haven’t heard the last of this one.
The scrambled nature of it all brought with it a further blow in the form of a game played behind closed doors due to logistic reasons although there was a large ‘official delegation’ in the stands from La Rochelle and that fostered real anger on social media.
Whatever about the mess off the pitch, Ulster’s deterioration on it had been spectacular in recent weeks and they were all but a beaten docket here in a game-defining first-half before rescuing pride and points after the restart.
Everything was peachy just three weekends ago when they led Leinster 22-3 at half-time in the URC. From there to half-time here they conceded 103 points while scoring just seven themselves. Tents take longer to collapse.
Repeated attempts to take the game to La Rochelle from the off were met with an unbreakable black wall in and around the visiting team’s 10-metre line. It took Ulster a full quarter to even make it to the opposition 22 and they didn’t go much further.
La Rochelle had more than just a solid ‘D’. O’Gara’s side were excellent with the ball, mixing up-front grunt with a clever kicking game and all of it executed with aplomb by a talented and on-song bunch of players.
Ulster’s struggles were reflected in the concession of eleven penalties in the first-half alone and, with Iain Henderson spending ten minutes in the bin, it made for one-way traffic and that lead of 29-0 at the interval for the Top 14 club.
Marshalling it all was La Rochelle ten Antoine Hastoy who had five penalties, a try and two conversions to his name by that break and it was his diagonal grubber kick that opened the door for full-back Brice Dulin to touch down with another.
Not a bad shift.
Ulster, by way of contrast, had lost their ten, Billy Burns, to a head knock after 22 minutes. He was replaced by Neil Doak who, versatile though he can be, is more of a scrum-half, but all this seemed academic on the turn.
Hats off then to Ulster who clawed their way back into it against a tiring opponent with tries from Henderson, John Cooney, Duane Vermeulen and Tom Stewart. Pierre Bourgarit’s fortunate, converted try was La Rochelle’s only offering.
Three of Ulster’s tries came in the final quarter and there was a clear sense that they would have won it had the game spanned another five or ten minutes. As it is Cooney’s injury-time kick will give them a stronger platform to go again in the New Year.
They would have jumped at that during the interval.
: M Lowry; E McIlroy, L Marshall, S McCloskey, R Lyttle; B Burns, J Cooney; R Sutherland, T Stewart, M Moore; A O’Connor, S Carter; I Henderson, N Timoney, D Vermeulen.
N Doak for Burns (22); R Herring for Stewart and K Treadwell for Carter (both 51); E O’Sullivan for Sutherland and G Milasinovich for Moore (both 61); D McCann for Timoney (67); S Moore for Marshall (73).
B Dulin; D Leyds, UJ Seuteni, J Danty, Pierre Boudehent; A Hastoy, T Kerr Barlow; R Wardi, P Bourgarit, U Atonio; R Sazy, W Skelton; R Bourdeau, Y Tanga, G Alldritt.
T Berjon for Kerr Barlow (HT); Paul Boudehent for Tanga (48); T Paiva for Wardi and J Sclavi for Atonio (both 51); Q Lespiaucq Brettes for Bourgarit, U Dillane for Skelton and R Rhule for Pierre Boudehent (all 60).
L Pearce (England).
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