In only their third win in England, the
Ulstermen passed, crashed and tackled their way to a deserved try bonus point
victory over the Northampton Saints, which puts them in full control of Pool
Four in the Heineken Cup.
It couldn’t have gone any better.
The Saints go marching out
Unless Northampton manage to storm Fortress Ravenhill next weekend, they will be out of the Heineken Cup at the pool stage for the second season running, and will be fighting it out with Castres for second place in the pool, and a place in the Amlin Challenge Cup.
On the flipside, Ulster find themselves in
the most commanding position possible. With 14 out of a possible 15 points
gained in their first three games, they are now six points clear of Castres in
second place, and eight points clear of Northampton in third. With two home
games to come, it would be considered rather foolish to bet against the
Ulstermen topping the pool for the first time in their history and gaining a
home quarter-final.
The bonus point will have helped Ulster’s
home quarter-final goal enormously. If they can recreate Friday’s performance
this Saturday, and against Glasgow, then a quarter-final position could even be
guaranteed before they travel to Castres.
But first, they have to overcome the
Northampton Saints for the second time on Saturday – this time at Ravenhill.
And they will have to draw on everything they did right on Friday night to come
away from the game with the same result.
They will have to go with the same team as
they did on Friday, or a very similar team anyway. All fifteen players did
themselves immensely proud with their performances – not one of them let the
team down. Man of the Match went to Jared Payne (who was magnificent) but in
reality, it could have gone to any of the Ulster players.
It was the experience that did it for them.
Before the game there were questions over some of the selections from Mark
Anscombe, but the players proved that the right team was on the pitch. The cool
heads of Andrew Trimble and Paddy Wallace justified their selections – the
former scoring a great try and the latter putting in some incredible tackles.
As touted before the game, the scrum was
where the game was going to be won and as the scoreline shows, Ulster dominated
the forwards battle. Despite his great showing last weekend against the
Scarlets, Callum Black was left on the bench – Tom Court was the man who
replaced him, and showed exactly why the Ulster management had kept faith in
him. The entire night he had Brian Mujati in his back pocket and was Ulster’s
rock around the park.
In fact, all of Ulster’s players could be
dubbed rocks. Their rock solid defence was what allowed them to maintain the
opportunity to launch the final counter attack and score the bonus point try.
It also kept the Saints out of losing bonus point range, which more or less
knocks them out of the competition (barring an unexpected win in Ravenhill).
Rory Best’s comment after the match summed up
the situation perfectly – ‘This win means
nothing if we don’t back it up next weekend.’ Ulster have to guard against complacency –
they’re now going for a remarkable fourteenth victory in a row, and a win which
could guarantee their qualification for the quarter-finals with two games to
spare if other results go their way. But first and foremost comes another
victory – the Saints will want revenge. They know they’re not completely out
yet and will desperately want to stay in the competition – Ulster will have to
prepare for that backlash.
Get ready for another Christmas cracker on
Saturday…
Allez
les Bleus
It was a good weekend to be from France – six
of their seven teams came away from their matches with victories. The only
losing side was Biarritz, who on paper were supposed to have the easiest match
away to Connacht! The French sides continued on the impressive form shown by
their national side to take full advantage of the failures of the Home Nations.
With three French teams topping their pools and the other four all still in
with a realistic chance of qualifying, it is clear to see where the power in
European rugby lies.
It wasn’t a bad weekend for Irish rugby
either, with three of their four sides coming away with wins. But Wales, Italy
and Scotland are all in real trouble – the three nations couldn’t manage even
one victory last weekend in seven attempts and the four Scottish and Italian
sides are more or less out of the competition already. Something is going wrong
in the Celtic nations.
Odds
on
Ulster’s win counted towards a lot more than
just points in the Heineken Cup.In the unofficial European club rankings, Ulster have topped the table for the first time, stealing first place off Leinster (who drop to 4th) and leapfrogging Toulon and Toulouse. To see the top 20 go to www.eurorugby.com.
Can Ulster continue to deal with the expectation
that is now being placed on them? We’ll see…
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