ULSTER'S ITALIAN JOB

Imagine the headlines yesterday morning if we had crashed to our first defeat of the season at Zebre. Classic top vs. bottom game and it was nearly the shock result of the season (so far).

What went wrong? A lot actually. And it all began before Ulster had even got to Italy…

Part one complete – just

I’m unsure how it happened, but Ulster managed to arrive in Parma after a 14 hour bus journey. Yep, you read that right – 14 HOURS. Presumably it was a mix-up in travel arrangements, but certainly having such a long commute didn’t help Ulster’s preparations.

But to the match, and we have our scrum to thank – big time. That crushing drive at the end forced Neil Paterson to go under the posts for the penalty try, and for the majority of the match we pulverised them up front. Praise also goes to Niall O’Connor for his (almost) flawless kicking display which kept us in contention for the whole match.

Beyond that, however, there was not much to cheer about.

I’ll begin with the restarts. Tito Tebaldi scored one of the easiest tries of his career after, on their own restart, Zebre winger Alessandro Castagnoli caught the ball and off-loaded to the quick scrum-half who sauntered over for Zebre’s first try – their first of four. No Ulster player touched the ball from that kick-off. In fact, they didn’t even touch one of the Zebre players. There’s great defence for you.

It’s something that has plagued Ulster for years. In many games over the past five or six seasons, the restarts have been seen as an issue. With the addition of Johann Muller and Dan Tuohy we had added a degree of safety to them – but when they were missing, it was very apparent. Even at the lineout where we are usually quite dominant, there were several that went awry. In the short term, you can put that down to our second row shortage. But in the long term…

It was a severely weakened team, yes. Out of the 15 that started, you would say only four would start in Ulster’s strongest team (Payne, Wallace, Afoa and Wilson). But as I have probably said before in another article, this should be no excuse. To win the league, you need strength in depth. Ulster aren’t far away from that, but Sunday highlighted the fact there is still a long way to go.

Speaking of defence, Ulster didn’t do too well in that respect either. Conceding four tries to the bottom side is never good – and it’s even worse when that bottom side had only scored six tries in seven games coming into the weekend. Not only that, but we’ve tripled their points tally for the season in one game. There will be a lot for Mark Anscombe to go away and look at ahead of part two of Ulster’s Italian ‘mini-tour’.

There is one positive to take – we got the win. Despite being weakened, despite playing poorly and despite having our backs up against the wall for the vast majority of the game, we still managed to snatch the victory from the jaws of defeat. It is becoming a key feature of this team – even when not at their best, they can still grind out the wins (which explains why we are still unbeaten). That could prove crucial in May.

I would like to congratulate Zebre on their play and commiserate with them on the result – they played well for the entire match and have some very good players in there as well. If they play like this on a regular basis, then there is no way they will end the season without a win. They just have to persevere and it will come eventually.

The second part of the mini-tour takes place 2 ½ hours down the road in Treviso. After the disgrace that was Ireland ‘XV’ vs. Fiji, Ulster should have a lot of their international contingent back, and boy do they need it. Whoever they get back will more than likely be drafted straight back into the team – not only because they are better, but because it will also serve as a kick up the rear for those that did play on Sunday.

The ‘get-out-of-jail’ card has just been played. Next time, there will be no excuses.

Flying Fijians confounded by flying Ulsterman

Craig Gilroy, take a bow. When the young man was given his chance, he most certainly took it. Three tries, a man of the match performance, and not a single step out of place. There is no doubt that Tommy Bowe and Andrew Trimble will have to look over their shoulders now – this lad wants his starting position back.

He wasn’t the only one who impressed. Paddy Jackson was instrumental in the victory – his passing was pinpoint accurate, his kicking was on the money and he looked like he’d been playing international rugby for years.

Outside him, Luke Marshall and Darren Cave formed a special centre partnership at 12 and 13. It was a sight to behold – four young Ulstermen carving up an international backline with ease. Were we possibly watching the future Ulster backline in motion? Two of them already start on a regular basis, and the other two are on the verge of breaking into that first team.

So how many of those Ulstermen will get into the 23 for Saturday’s game vs. Argentina? Jackson has certainly shown he can mix it with the big guys and has given himself a great chance of displacing Ronan O’Gara on the Irish bench. Craig Gilroy has also played himself into contention, but may miss out – Declan Kidney seems to prefer Fergus McFadden. Luke Marshall and Darren Cave played superbly but will probably also miss out. Ireland’s loss, Ulster’s gain.

The only downside to last Saturday’s game? No caps. Please IRFU, get it sorted.