Afoa, "Did we really win that?" Humphreys, "Yep, welcome to the Heineken Cup!". Picture from rugbypicture.co.uk. Click pic for more.
My goodness, how did they get out of that?
As I sat down to watch this one, slightly pissed off at not being able to make it to Ravers with the rest of the brethren, I must admit that I thought we were in for a bit of a hammering as Ulster struggled in the opening exchanges.
Ulster looked at six’s and sevens, bumbling and fumbling and struggling to throw two passes together, Clermont looked as though they could score at will. Lee Byrne looked imperious, slicing through the Ulster defence contrasting sharply with Danielli who looked under pressure and out of place.
A fumble by Danielli is cleared by Marshall but Byrne fields, slices through the defence, passes to Nakaitaci and Ulster are down by 5. The only glimmer of hope is Parra, his conversion attempt going the way of his earlier penalty. After ten minutes Clermont are leading by 5 and have left 8 points on the pitch with a Skrella drop goal attempt also going wide.
The Ulster scrum proves to be a way into the game and Humphreys makes it 3 – 5 converting a penalty from the second collapsed scrum and Ulster look to be gaining a finger hold on the game through their set piece.
Both teams try to play the game at pace with Marshall prominent for Ulster but both teams struggle and it’s a scrappy first half , a poor advert for European rugby. Skrela and Humphreys swap penalties at the end of a largely forgettable first half and the teams turn round with the score reading 6 – 11.
The game livened up in the second half but it was forced changes that decided the game.
Humphreys narrowed the gap to two points with a penalty ten minutes after the restart, following good work by Henry and Tuohy off a lineout, but more importantly Skrela limped off to be replaced by Brock James with the injured Danielli following minutes later to be replaced by Adam D’Arcy.
The replacements changed the course of the game. James was abysmal from hand and tee and Ulster’s confidence grew with each kick until D’Arcy seized the moment with his scintillating break up the left sending Humphreys clear to score in the corner. The old stadium erupted and crucially Humphreys slotted over the conversion from wide leaving Clermont five points adrift at 16 -11 with ten minutes remaining.
The French offered little, with James continuing to fluff his lines, and Ulster held on comfortably to win.
| TEAM DETAILS |
Ulster: (15 -1) Simon Danielli, Andrew Trimble, Darren Cave, Paddy Wallace, Craig Gilroy; Ian Humphreys, P Marshall; Tom Court, Rory Best, John Afoa; Johann Muller (capt), Dan Tuohy; Stephen Ferris, Chris Henry, Pedrie Wannenburg. Subs: Adam D’Arcy (Danielli 55), Paddie McAllister (Court 67), Declan Fitzpatrick (Afoa 67), Willie Faloon (Ferris 76), Andi Kyriacou, Louis Stevenson, Ian Porter, Nevin Spence.
Clermont: (15-1) L Byrne; W Fofana, A Rougerie, R King, N Kataitaci; D Skrela, M Parra; L Faure, B Kayser, D Zirakashvili; N Hines, J Pierre; J Bonnaire, G Vosloo, E Vermeulen. Subs: JM Buttin (King 71), K Senio (Parra 69), C Ric (Faure 60), M Kotze (Zirakashvili 51), J White (Pierre 71), J Bardy (Vermeulen 64), B James (Skrela 64), Paulo
Att: 9,385
| THE FRONT ROW REVIEW |
I’m sure plenty of my chums will be telling me that I missed out on another great, great Ravenhill experience, and I’m sure I did, but stripping this game of emotion, this was really a poor, poor game! Both sides struggled to string together more than a few phases and Ulster can count themselves exceptionally lucky to come out of this on top!
It’s been a while since I watched a Heiny game without being a giggling, drunken, buffoon and I feel I must add a touch of sobriety on proceedings and point out that, while this was a great, if unspectacular, effort up front, it was an effort of individuals more than a collective team endeavour. There’s a good team here struggling to get out, but, for a lot of the game, Ulster the team failed to impress despite the impressive application from the individuals of Ulster.
Putting your “best” players on the pitch just isn’t good enough at this level and on another day it would have been a different result. The absence of Faloon in the back row and the selection of Danielli at full back does worry me. Danielli may be a better player than D’Arcy but he’s not a better full back and dropping Henry or Wannenburg in favour of Faloon may be harsh after their telling individual contributions, but a Faloon at the top of his game ads much more to the collective effort no matter how naughty the Headmaster deems him to have been!
By all accounts Leicester had a scrappy enough game against Aironi and I have a feeling that they are there for the taking at Welford Road next week. The effort of individuals won’t be enough, but if Ulster the team turn up it could be another great Heiny day out!
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2 Responses to “Heineken Cup: Ulster 16 Clermont 11”
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Must agree with you on the quality of the game both sides never seem to get more than two or three phases together before some one kicked or dropped the ball.A game of scrappy mauls and rucks and set pieces.
Both sides seemed willing to forego possession in favour of territory and it seemed that Ulster had settled to win the game on penalties until D’Arcy found a hole in their defence which seemed totally at odds with the way Ulster had been playing.
A win is a win so i won’t complain to loudly
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Mind you the same sort of performance and a win this Saturday would be a completely different matter!
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