And we’re not talking about another try, we’re talking about any
points AT ALL.
Only Ulster could manage that, and nearly throw the game away in the
process. Indeed, had Michele Campagnaro held onto that last minute interception
then I would be talking about another away defeat for the Ulstermen instead of
a win. Yet, unsurprisingly, Sunday’s result feels remarkably like a loss than a
win – and considering how hard we tried to lose the game in the second half,
I’m actually rather surprised that I’m not writing about a loss today.
What baffles me completely is how we played scintillating rugby that
tore Treviso apart in the first half, and survived ten minutes without Craig
Gilroy without conceding a point, and in the second half we looked like a poor
imitation of that side. We seemed to rest on our laurels and believe that the
game was won, and rather than cruise to the bonus point that seemed like a
formality, we regressed into the team that put in those limp performances
against the Scarlets and the Ospreys.
For some reason we decided that the best way to get our fourth try was
not to continue with the running game that was posing Treviso so many problems,
but instead to resort back to the futile kicking game that has failed us for
the past two months. As I said a few weeks ago, the kicking game can work, but only when you have the right
players for it. Without Andrew Trimble, who will chase every kick, we cannot
employ the kicking game successfully.
It’s such a shame after the Leinster game where we ran the ball very
well, and the first half in Italy where we were making yards on a regular
basis, that we couldn’t understand that this was a tactic that needed stuck
with. If we had picked up in the second
half where we left off in the first half with our running game then the bonus
point would have been a case of when rather than if. Instead, our tactics
failed us once more.
We can’t even use the excuse of Treviso improving, because they
didn’t. We simply gave them a route back into the game and they very happily
took it, scoring 20 unanswered points and giving us a real scare – again, had
Campagnaro held onto that intercept with less than a minute left on the clock
we were going back to Belfast with just a point. But that does not mean they
were good, no. Rather they preyed on our inability to put the game to bed and
when they got their chances to score points they gave the ball to the reliable
Jayden Hayward who slotted over his kicks without any hassle.
For the first time since he became a pundit, and a very good one at
that, I found myself disagreeing with Paddy Wallace’s judgement that the
positives outweighed the negatives at the final whistle. Not for the first game
this season there have been a lot of questions raised about this Ulster outfit,
namely can they compete in the league this season. Being two points off the top
four hides the real story – several disappointing results and a tragic European
campaign that will more than likely see us finish bottom of our pool.
How you can argue the positives outweigh the negatives is beyond me.
Yes, we played some irresistible rugby for the first half an hour with Pienaar
and Jackson pulling the strings like master puppeteers, but after that we
switched off completely. There was no intensity to wrap up the bonus point,
there was no urgency or desperation and as a result we paid for it. Had we got
one more try before half-time then it would’ve been job done, haul off the big
names and head home with five points in the bag.
We now head into two dead rubber matches against Toulon and Leicester
knowing that we are playing for pride alone, and we will probably see a much
changed side head to the Stade Felix Mayol as we look to conserve a few front
line names. Whatever the results, as long as we come through unscathed and with
no injury worries heading into the Six Nations then we will have traversed the
Champions’ Cup minefield relatively successfully.
Sadly, that’s all we’re playing for now.
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