HARD-EARNED POINTS

Another week and another display of mental fortitude for Ulster.

Last week it was overcoming a poor first half to fight back and gain what was an unlikely four-try bonus point away to Treviso. This week was a completely different story as we had to show great strength of character to hang in until the bitter end to see off an in-form Dragons side and grab all four points let alone four tries.

I don’t think I am the only one who thought that Friday night would be a formality and by the end of the game Ulster would be sitting comfortably atop of the PRO12 table, probably with a two-point cushion. But in truth the game was anything but a formality and it goes to show how valuable it is for the Dragons that they have continuity within their side even through the international periods. While we lost four players to Ireland, the Dragons lost just one and it showed.

Their attacking patterns were fluid, their defence was robust and they looked like the more complete team. Had their maul defence and discipline been slightly better then perhaps we would be looking back on Friday night’s game in a different light.

But should we look back on it in a different light just because Ulster won?

Certainly it prevents us from immediately jumping to the knee-jerk reactions that would have undoubtedly followed had that final penalty not gone over, but when you do look at the game in general it wasn’t Ulster’s greatest performance by any means. The Dragons did play well and were a handful but Ulster didn’t cover themselves in glory either.

There were several times where the wrong decisions were made in attack and we sent isolated runners into the Dragons defence and we were punished for it. There was no attempt to suck in the visitors’ defence before going wide, we decided instead to crab our way across the pitch and as a result we never looked like we would break through. Defensively, for the first time in a while, we also looked rather frail which is very uncharacteristic for this Ulster side.

Ultimately, however, we did pick up four points and that was down to a brutally effective rolling maul and the continued rise of Sean Reidy. The maul, which was the catalyst for last week’s win too, was in powerful form and is quickly becoming a weapon for us against most teams while, in the absence of Chris Henry, Sean Reidy has become one of our key players recently with his breakdown work improving every week. He has been one of the breakthroughs of the season so far.

And where would we be without Paddy Jackson.

I wrote a few weeks ago about how much the 24-year old had grown as a fly-half and how much control he now exerted over the game, and Friday night’s cameo off the bench showed he has added yet another string to his reliable bow – composure. The mental strength for Jackson to put that second penalty over, especially after missing the first one, proves how resilient the young man has become.

Ironically we shouldn’t even have had him for the game, he definitely should have been away with Ireland and should have featured against Wales in some capacity. Joe Schmidt’s inability to select the form Irish fly-half for Sunday’s game was without a doubt Ireland’s loss and Ulster’s gain. Jackson has done everything he can to be considered for international honours and if he isn’t given a run in the green shirt before long then it is a grave error.

For all my negativity, we still have to look at this as a positive that we have overcome an opponent that proved to be a lot trickier than we thought they would be and have risen to the top of the PRO12 standings. We have an accessible run of fixtures to the end of the season and we should be able to make a genuine run at finishing in the top two, especially with no European distractions.

And then, of course, our final hoodoo has to be broken at some point.