Heineken Cup: Aironi 20 Ulster 46 – 64 Photos Added

Glad to see the back row working harder to keep up with "Man of the Match" John Afoa! Picture from BBC Sport.

Ulster scored three tries in each half to secure the bonus point win and keep their hopes alive of getting to the knock out stages of the Heineken Cup. With Leicester narrowly beating Clermont at Welford Road, Ulster now top Pool 4  on 14 points.

It was a topsy turvy match at Stadio Brianteo, Monza. Ulster started with good intent and Andrew Trimble crossed the line twice in the opening minutes. Unfortunately he dropped the ball in the act of scoring on the first occasion but moments later the bustling winger made amends holding on by his finger tips to touch down under the posts on the second attempt.

With Ulster 0 – 7 up after six minutes it looked as though Ulster were going to run away with this one, but despite dominating the breakdown throughout the first half they only managed to add a Humphreys penalty in the first quarter.  Aironi responded with a penalty of their own to take the score to 3 – 10 but with Ulster looking determined and Aironi looking largely disinterested up front, a rumbling maul from the Ulster pack was pulled down feet short of the Aironi line only for the referee to award a penalty try. Humphreys converted and Ulster looked comfortable at 3 – 17.

Humphreys added another penalty after 36 minutes and it looked like job done when Court went over from short range minutes before the break. Humphreys added the extras and at 3 – 27 and Ulster barley breaking sweat it looked like a comfortable four pointer was on the cards.

Aironi came out with different ideas in the second half and worryingly started to bully Ulster up front taking their turn to dominate the breakdown. Both sides made early changes with Ulster bringing on Jackson, McAllister and Terblanche for Spence (injured), Court and Trimble but it was the Italians who looked more comfortable with their changes. After a period of pressure in the Ulster 22 the home side worked a well taken score for Sinoti Toomaga, converted by Orquera and minutes later when Quartorili intercepted a Gilroy pass and sprinted half the length of the pitch to score it looked like a remarkable reversal was on the cards.

Ulster brought on Diack and Marshall for Wannenburg and Humphreys (Pienaar moving to 10) but moments later suffered a further setback with Patrick Jackson twisting his knee necessitating “Mr Versatility” Nigel Brady coming on to take up a position on the wing with Terblanche moving to centre! Old Nigel is now well on target to play in every position on the pitch this season!

Thankfully Big Robbie played more t his potential this time round and he an Marshall certainly added fresh impedus to Ulsters attack. A typical sniping move by Marshall was kept alive by Diack and fast hands from Cave and a delightfully simple draw and pass from Terblanche sent Gilroy over in the corner for that vital fourth try much to the relief of Big Ferris who I thought was going  to throw young Craig over the hoardings! Pienaar converted taking the score to Aironi 15 Ulster 34.

Aironi kept it interesting with a well worked try attacking Brady’s wing for George Biagi to score but again failed to convert and both teams seemed to be enjoying themselves running the ball at every opportunity.

Ulster responded by bringing on Macklin for Henry with Brady going to wing forward and the sprightly Afoa taking up position on the wing, I think,  and as the game looked to be petering out Robbie Diack reminded us of his early promise with a great interception for Ulster’s fifth, converted by Pienaar.

There was still more to come however, with Marshall  keeping the ball alive in extra time for Ulster’s sixth, and perhaps best score of the game. With the referee calling time the easy option would have been for Marshall to kick to touch but the spunky little scraper kept things alive for the resultant move to send Adam Macklin over in the corner for Ulster’s, slightly flattering but maybe crucial, sixth try. Pienaar missed from wide with the last kick of the game giving Ulster an impressive win with the score reading Aironi 20 Ulster 46.

Ulster (15-9): Adam D’Arcy, Andrew Trimble, Darren Cave, Nevin Spence, Craig Gilroy, Ian Humphreys, Ruan Pienaar. (1-8): Tom Court, Rory Best, John Afoa, Johann Muller (capt), Dan Tuohy, Stephen Ferris, Chris Henry, Pedrie Wannenburg. (16-23): Nigel Brady, Paddy McAllister, Adam Macklin, Tim Barker, Robbie Diack, Paul Marshall, Patrick Jackson, Stefan Terblanche.

Aironi (15-9): Ruggero Trevisan, Sinoti Sinoti, Andrea Masi, Gabriel Pizarro, Giovanbattista Venditti, Luciano Orquera, Tyson Keats. (1-8) Josh Sole, Simone Favaro, Nicola Cattina, Marco Bortolami (cap), Quintin Geldenhuys, Lorenzo Romano, Fabio Ongaro, Salvatore Perugini. (16-23) Tommaso D’Apice, Alberto De Marchi, Fabio Staibano, George Biagi, Filippo Ferrarini, Tito Tebaldi, Naas Olivier, Roberto Quartaroli.

It really was a strange game this one. Aironi’s forwards looked completely disinterested for much of the first half, not bothering to compete at many of the breakdowns and leaving huge gaps at the rucks which Ulster largely failed to exploit. I think it wasn’t till ten minutes from the end of the first half that Stevie Ferris noticed the huge undefended space behind he rucks and drove the ball on for Court’s try but really they should have been making big yards off this for most of the opening period.

The normally reliable Darren Cave had an opening 60 minutes he’d rather forget, being unusually wasteful off hand and foot with an uncharacteristic fumble setting up Aironi for their opening try. He did pull himself together for the final quarter playing a crucial role in Ulster’s forth and sixth so still a positive contribution overall. It might just show the usual sniping keyboard warriors who have been anonymously climbing all over Danielli, D’Arcy, Humphreys  and Spence this season that even the most consistent can have their off days!

Afoa had a great game with ball in hand, one burst of pace up the wing had me going.  ”Who the feck is that ?”, till the camera panned in on him and with his ball handling skills it would be a much better statement of intent if Ulster cut loose from this idea of the three big bruisers in the back row. With Ferris, Afoa and Tuohy all capable of putting pace on the ball up front I think Ulster would be better served with a ground hog seven and a ball playing eight with the eight capable of maintaining the break and the seven there to rescue it if it breaks down. Ulster have much more of a chance of prolonging any success if they rotated Ferris and Wannenburg at six and Diack, Henry and Faloon at seven and eight!

Still, it was a better performance than I anticipated and certainly a better result. Hopefully the injuries to Spence and Jackson are not too serious.

It’s strange how your mindset changes, especially after a topsy turvy outing like this one but Ulster genuinely have a chance of doing something in this group. It would be a huge step up on last year’s achievements, though let’s hope we can do it in a style worthy of a team intent on world domination!

Pool 4 as it stands.
Pos		Team	Pl	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1		Ulster Rugby	4	3	0	1	102	61	41	12	6	2	0	14
2		Leicester Tigers	4	3	0	1	83	70	13	8	4	0	0	12
3		ASM Clermont Auvergne	4	2	0	2	114	54	60	13	5	1	2	11
4		Aironi Rugby	4	0	0	4	45	159	-114	4	22	0	0	0

More like this:

• Heineken Cup: Teams for Aironi v Ulster
• Heineken Cup: Ulster squad for Leicester.
• Heineken Cup: A whopping 34 in contention for Saturday! Yeah right!
• Heineken Cup: Extended Squad for Munster.