Heaslip brings a decisive edge to the game as Leinster beat Ulster in the Magners League Semi-Final. BY: rugbypicture.co.uk
Ulster travelled to Dublin more in hope than expectation on Friday night and, despite a dogged enough display from the Ulster tyros, Leinster had enough class to take the game reasonably comfortably in the end.
Ulster created few scoring chances against the Dublin outfit but our Mexican cousins were left to count the cost of this bruising encounter with several front line players pulled early with injury concerns ahead of next weeks European Cup Final. Indeed if the match hadn’t been an all Ireland encounter the aftermath could be worse, with O’Driscoll looking to have landed a punch on Henry, though I expect the IRFU citing commissioners will fast forward through that one.
Missing Ferris, Trimble, Wallace and Tuohy, Ulster were always going to find this one difficult, especially having been bullied out of the previous two encounters this season, but they set about their task in a determined fashion bringing a physical game to the RDS, but with Leinster enjoying the lions share of posession the question was how long could Ulster hold out.
Despite Leinster coming close on a few occasions it was the 25th minute before they crossed the line to add a McFadden try to an earlier Sexton penalty and, as the clock ticked down on the first half, Ulster would have been reasonably happy to turn round eight points down with the elements behind them.
Indeed Ulster had their chances in the first half but they failed to capitalise on their limited possession with a series of handling errors and poor lineouts handing the ball back to Leinster time after time, and, as luck would have it, it was from an Ulster attacking lineout that Leinster got their third score before the break. A third botched lineout and some poor tackling allowed Heaslip to drive deep into the Ulster half with, inevitably, a penalty awarded against the scrambling Ulster defence.
Sexton obliged with the kick and the teams turned round with the score reading Leinster 11 Ulster 0.
Ulster upped the tempo and enjoyed their best period of the game during the third quarter, finally managing to string together a few phases, putting Leinster under pressure in their own half.
Jerry Cronin, on for Fitzpatrick at the break, featured strongly in the scrum and the loose and as Leinster’s front line trooped off in quick succession, with bumps, bruises and worse, and it began to look as though Ulster had a chance.
Crucially, Ulster failed to convert their chances during this period, looking tense as they tried to force the game, but as Leinster started to work their way back into the game Pienaar landed a massive 55 yard plus penalty to give Ulser their first score of the night taking the game to 11 – 3.
Ulster’s brief flicker of hope lasted ten minutes when, after a period of Leinster pressure ended, Fitzgerald skated through the tiring defence to score under the posts. McFadden added the extras and the game was over with the score at 18 – 3.
McLaughlin emptied the bench in the final minutes but it really should have been done earlier, particularly with Best misfiring with the darts. In the end it was too little too late and Leinster held on reasonably comfortably to complete the first part of their three game quest for glory.
Read our live match day coverage here.
Ulster: (15-9): Adam D’Arcy; Craig Gilroy, Darren Cave, Nevin Spence, Simon Danielli; Ian Humphreys, Ruan Pienaar. (1-8): Tom Court, Rory Best (capt), Declan Fitzpatrick, Johann Muller, Tim Barker, Pedrie Wannenburg, Chris Henry, Robbie Diack. (16-23): Andi Kyriacou, Paddy McAllister, Jerry Cronin, Neil McComb, TJ Anderson, Paul Marshall, Ian Whitten, Conor Gaston.
Leinster (15-9): I Nacewa; F McFadden, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, I Boss. (1-8): C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross, L Cullen, N Hines, S O’Brien, S Jennings, J Heaslip. (16-23): J Harris-Wright, H van der Merwe, S Wright, D Toner, K McLaughlin, E Reddan, I Madigan, D Kearney.
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2 Responses to “Magners League: Leinster 18 Ulster 3”
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I don’t know how to feel after this game… very proud of Ulster for the achievements and progress we have made this season or disappointed because of the chances we have let slip through our fingers, especially in this game.
I am extremely proud of the determination and mindset shown by our boys to front up to Leinster but disappointed that when we had the chance to capitalise on the field position/possession that we had, the ball was either over-thrown or the pass was dropped/forward. It just shows you that at this level it is belief that you WILL win rather than HOPE that you will win that makes all the difference, as Leinster have shown over and over again.
So good luck to them in the final of both the Magners and the Heineken cups but to use a phrase that I’m sure our Mexican and turnip cousins will understand “Tiocfaidh ár lá”. Roll on next season…. Come on Ulster
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Ulster basically have to lose their inferiority complex by that I mean in possession everybody tries too hard going the extra yard way from their support to be either penalised or yielding the turnover and the backs tend to try far too many slick moves- flat passes- inside passes – running loops a severe case of being mesmerized by their own inventiveness.
They should take a leaf out of the leinster attack manuel lie deep and get it wide . Did the Ulster wings get a pass in the game when out on the wing?
Defensively Ulster played well it was our game in possession which let us down.
After last nights performance the leinster scrum in my view is going to have a very hard time next week against the Saints if the referee allows the Saints to get away with boreing in the scrum. The Ulster scrum was pulervised by the Saints but was the better of the two sides last night.
I believe the scoreline last night is more representative of the difference between Ulster and Leinster and Munster basically we make it hard for ourselves to score trys but would yeild two trys to them. ( away from home ) They are not 10 magners points better than Ulster
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