Ulster sift through Welford woe for positives

There was enough in that first half against the Tigers to suggest the Richie Murphy project can continue to build into something. What that turns out to be remains to be seen

MAULING: Leicester Tigers' Tommy Reffell and Iain Henderson of Ulster in the tight at Welford Road on Saturday. Pic: Tom Maher, Inpho.

Investec Champions Cup: Leicester Tigers 38 Ulster 10.

ON paper, it’s difficult to make a case for Saturday’s defeat at the hands of Leicester being anything but a demoralising hammering for Ulster. For all the green shoots of a recent away win over Connacht, this side is still not good enough to compete with a Tigers outfit which has seen better days.

Ulster could only cross the Leicester line courtesy of a backfield mix-up between Handré Pollard and Ollie Hassell-Collins. Neither men took control of a steepling garryowen, the bouncing ball sitting up perfectly for Nick Timoney to coast home.

That try left Ulster 0-10 up after 10 minutes. They didn’t score again. They only entered the Leicester 22 on two further occasions, both ended by Tommy Reffell breakdown poaches. In the second half, Leicester had virtually no defending to do inside their own half.

Instead, the hosts scored four tries in a 15-minute span after the break to kill off the contest. The repetitive nature of the scores, familiar Ulster errors presenting gift after gift, is difficult to spin into a positive ‘work-on.’ Still, there was enough in that first half at least to suggest the Richie Murphy project can continue to build into something. What that turns out to be remains to be seen. Centres Jude Postlethwaite and Ben Carson both looked good on the ball, while Ulster’s close passing game amongst the pack created a number of gaps.

“Early on, I thought the forwards did a good job of getting us into the game,” said Murphy. “10-0 up after 15 minutes, we're right in the game.

“Even at half-time we felt that there was one score in it and we had a good chance but we didn't look after the ball well enough, we put no attack together in the second half, no pressure on them at their end. Ultimately, that's how the score blew out to 38 points.” 

That lack of attack came from the same errors cropping up. Leicester’s strong kicking game, perhaps no surprise given the presence of Pollard and Freddie Steward, saw Ulster’s backfield struggle. Zac Ward dropped a steepling kick towards the end of the first half which gave Leicester a platform. They eventually scrummed and mauled their way into the 22, opening up space for wing Josh Bassett to score his second of the night, both simple finishes in the corner.

In the second half, Rory Telfer, on after Ethan McIlroy limped off with a serious-looking knee injury, took his turn to spill a kick inside his 22. From the resulting scrum, Leicester’s strike move cut open the Ulster midfield, allowing Hassell-Collins to score just minutes after crossing following another good Tigers maul. For all of Postlethwaite and Carson’s collision dominance in attack, the Ulster midfield was sliced apart with far too much regularity.

Ward then spilled Bassett’s grubber close to the Ulster line, allowing the wing to complete his hat-trick. Two minutes later, Carson’s poor pass inside his own half handed Izaia Perese Leicester’s sixth try.

“The pressure comes on, the guys feel they need to play because they’re behind, but the more they play the more trouble they play into,” explains Murphy. “It’s probably a little bit of experience in that regard, when to take the right opportunity to play. We want to play, but you can’t play off the back of slow ball with a full line in front of you. Turnover the ball and one or two scores led from that.

"The high ball game, the kicking game they had was superior to ours. Our fielding, which is normally very good, wasn't at the level it needed to be tonight.” 

Both on the scoreboard and in terms of the performance, this was not Ulster’s most damaging Champions Cup defeat this season. “We’ve had a couple of games where it felt like we were nowhere near,” says Nick Timoney.

“That Toulouse game [Ulster lost 61-21], they were straight up a better team. As much as you can be at ease with that, you’d rather feel like you’re competitive. We were good enough to be competitive with that [Leicester] team, maybe that’s a hint of a trend in the right direction.” Clutching at straws? Only time will tell.

For now, bizarrely, Ulster still have a chance of reaching the last-16 despite losing all three Champions Cup clashes so far. They trail the Sharks by five match points and a score differential of 56.

Ulster host Exeter next week, another struggling outfit, while the Sharks have to travel to Bordeaux. An Ulster bonus point win which boosts their points difference, coupled with a French hammering for the South African side, could see Ulster sneak through. A win of any kind for the province sees them at least go into the Challenge Cup.

“We’re not throwing the dice and hoping a miracle happens, there’s legitimately something to play for,” says Timoney. “We want to be in as many competitions as we can and competing as best we can. It’s a huge game.” 

LEICESTER TIGERS: F Steward; J Bassett, I Perese, S Kata (J Woodward 54), O Hassell-Collins; H Pollard (J Shillcock 62), J van Poortvliet (B Youngs 60); N Smith (J Whitcombe 64), J Montoya (c) (C Clare 64), J Heyes (D Cole 60); C Henderson, J Holloway (H Wells 69); F Carnduff (E Ilione 50), T Reffell, O Cracknell.

ULSTER: E McIlroy (R Telfer 23); W Kok, B Carson, J Postlethwaite, Z Ward; A Morgan (J Murphy 50), N Doak (John Cooney 56); A Warwick (E O’Sullivan 52), J Andrew (J McCormick 56), S Wilson (C Barrett 56); I Henderson (c) (K Treadwell 54), C Izuchukwu (H Sheridan 65); J McNabney, N Timoney, D McCann.

Referee: Craig Evans (Wales).