IRISH ON THE UP

Contender for greatest Ulster win in the Heineken Cup ever? Probably.

Just look at the stats: Montpellier hadn’t lost at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir in eighteen matches, and they’d never lost at home in the Heineken Cup. Look at the players they had in their team too, no less than eleven internationals in their starting line-up and a further three on the bench. Combine that with the fact that many were tipping Montpellier as dark horses for the title, and it just amounts to one absolutely incredible win for Ulster.

It harks back to last season’s win away to Northampton where we dismantled them at Franklin’s Gardens. On Saturday we did exactly the same to one of the strongest home teams in Europe – we outthought them, played exactly the right tactics to counter them and, quite honestly, we outplayed them in all aspects of the game. It wasn’t a perfect performance, no, but it was very close to it.

What Ulster fans will be hoping though, is that this is unlike the Saints game. Last season we were playing some irresistible rugby up to and including that game. From there we dropped our performance levels and ultimately missed out on a home Heineken Cup quarter-final, while narrowly missing out on winning the Pro12. This season, we are playing a controlled brand of rugby, maybe not the most attractive, but more importantly it is winning us games. Hopefully it will continue.

Most of the credit has to go to Mark Anscombe and his coaching staff. Tactically, they couldn’t have done any better, and despite being criticised before the game for choosing Robbie Diack over Iain Henderson, they were proved right in their selection as the former did a brilliant stand-in job for the injured Nick Williams.

What has this win done? It’s put us firmly in control of Pool Five, and means we are only one of three teams remaining who can go six from six in the pool stages (along with Toulouse and Leinster). With two wins over Treviso (bonus points or not) and another win over Montpellier at Ravenhill, that would probably be enough to take us to the quarter-finals. However, that’s not the main goal.

With a crucial away win in the Heineken Cup registered, Anscombe and his team will have to be looking at getting a quarter-final to Ravenhill come next April. Having missed out last season, and then losing to Saracens at Twickenham, Ulster were kicking themselves. This season there must not be such a mistake made. The stats don’t lie – the vast majority of sides that have had home quarter-finals have progressed to the semi-finals. It pays dividends not to have to travel.

We could end up looking at a crucial match at Welford Road in January against Leicester depending on how their matches go. But presuming they go as predicted we may find ourselves having a knockout match before the knockout round, and what a game it will be if both sides can get their full teams back and raring to go.

But before that, we are back to Pro12 action against Cardiff next week, and there’s the Heineken Cup double-header in December against Treviso to navigate as well. What you can say though is that we have a lot of exciting rugby to look forward to this season, and hopefully we will be treated to lots of great games, all Ulster wins of course!

And it wasn’t just Ulster who were in the winning mood this weekend, as all four Irish provinces were victorious in what was a Super Saturday of rugby for Irish rugby fans.

First up were Connacht who made the trip to Italy to take on Zebre. Thanks to tries from George Naoupu and Mata Fifita, along with twenty-three points from the boot of Dan Parks gave the Westies an impressive 33-6 win which keeps their Heineken Cup dreams alive, although with back-to-backs against Toulouse in December, they may be over sooner rather than later. Nevertheless, it’s good to see Connacht getting another win against any opposition, especially in the Heineken Cup.

Next up were Leinster who took complete control of Pool One with a win over Castres. Admittedly I didn’t see the game as I was watching our match (obviously), but it seems like the Leinster bandwagon is back on track once more and they are just as good under Matt O’Connor as they were under Joe Schmidt. However, their back-to-backs against Northampton will be must-wins if they want a home quarter-final.

And finally it was Munster’s turn to make it four from four, which they did so with a controlling victory over Gloucester at Thomond Park. Rob Penney will be very happy his side got off the mark in the Heineken Cup at the second attempt, although similarly to Leinster, if they want to have any chance of being at home in the quarters then they definitely have to win away in Perpignan – easier said than done.