Ulster had enough in the tank to edge out the Leicester Tigers tonight at Ravenhill, with a Tommy Bowe try and consistent kicking once again from Paddy Jackson launching the 2013/ 14 Heineken Cup campaign in encouraging style.
Despite a 41 – 7 victory in the teams’ most recent European meeting two years ago, the opening home tie against the Tigers was always a potential banana skin for Mark Anscombe’s men. However Ulster kept their balance impressively thanks to concentration, discipline, and not a little invention from 1 to 23.
Ulster got into gear early, working the game’s first real chance in the third minute, which only broke down when Tommy Bowe slightly overthrew his final pass to Darren Cave – stationed in the Monaghan man’s habitual position on the wing – and the ball looped just beyond Cave’s grasp and out of play.
Leicester struck back with interest four minutes later, prop Logovii Mulipola picking up Dan Bowden’s long pass into the corner and resisting Luke Marshall’s desperate lunge to flop down by the flag. Toby Flood converted, but Ulster recovered quickly from the early setback, Jared Payne’s lengthy kick to touch putting the Tigers under pressure on their own lineout five metres from their try-line.
The Premiership outfit cleared their lines cleanly in the first instance, but a subsequent Ulster lineout from a similar distance on the other side of the park paid dividends, as Bowe collected Jackson’s searching kick to the left-hand corner to ground a typically acrobatic try, with the out-half adding the extras from the acutest of angles.
Flood knocked over a short-range penalty to edge his side back in front on the 20-minute mark, only to be cancelled out 10 minutes later courtesy of Jackson’s boot after some fearless ball-carrying into the ‘22’ from a fired-up Rory Best.
A rare reversal at the Leicester lineout on 34 minutes failed to materialise into points when the Ulster forwards knocked on as they tried to barge their way through the Tigers’ rearguard, but sublime work from Paul Marshall at scrumtime, which saw the diminutive scrum-half leave four or five Tigers in his wake from a mazy run, provoked the infringement which allowed Jackson to send his side in at half-time with a slender lead.
Half-Time Score Ulster 13 Leicester Tigers 10
The second half opened with two disallowed tries for Ulster, as the hosts put together a spell of cohesive and creative rugby hitherto unseen in the encounter.
The first saw an heroic dash the length of the pitch ball in hand from Jackson after he had picked up an errant Tigers pass deep in his own ‘22’ – only for the out-half to find referee M. Poite had called play to a halt for an apparent offside as he had seized possession. The decision proved decidedly unpopular with the majority of the capacity Ravenhill crowd, all the more so as Flood duly dispatched the resulting penalty to bring the teams even at 13 points apiece.
Ruan Pienaar – recently committed to three more seasons in Belfast despite much-publicised interest from French club Toulon – entered the fray in place of Marshall on 48 minutes, but it was Cave who hit the headlines in the very next move as he broke the Leicester line to ground beneath of the posts - only for the TMO to confirm that Jackson’s pass to Payne in the build-up had gone forward.
Compensation of sorts could have come on 54 minutes with a further penalty attempt from Jackson, but the kick failed to trouble the posts – representing the out-half’s first miss in nine consecutive attempts. With Stuart Olding and Iain Henderson into the mix on the hour, Ulster’s verve showed no signs of abating, and with Number Eight Jordan Crane sent to the bin for an intentional trip on Pienaar as he attempted to play the ball at the breakdown deep in the Leicester ‘22’, Jackson made no mistake with his short-range penalty.
Flood then screwed an elementary penalty of his own wide on 63 minutes, and with Tigers penalised again in their scrum moments later, Jackson put a little more clear blue water between the teams from the left wing with a low but accurate effort.
Brave play from Henderson kept the next Ulster move going as he dived head-first on a loose ball and a flailing Leicester boot, and his courage was rewarded as Leicester again infringed in front of their posts, handing Jackson penalty number five on a plate.
More excitement came on 74 minutes as Owen Williams’ desperate drop-goal attempt rebounded off the upright back into open play, although the replacement out-half reduced the gap to six points courtesy of a well-struck penalty two minutes later.
The final Ulster manoeuvre of the match came to a premature end as Andrew Trimble uncharacteristically knocked on a simple ball in midfield, but with the clock at 80 minutes Leicester simply kicked into touch after Ulster infringed at the subsequent scrum.
Next up for Ulster is a trip to Southern France to face in-form Top 14 outfit Montpellier, where a performance of at least equal calibre will be required to maintain the momentum established tonight against the Tigers.
Full-Time Score Ulster 22 Leicester Tigers 16
Ulster (15 – 9) J Payne; A Trimble, D Cave, L Marshall, T Bowe; P Jackson, P Marshall (1 – 8) T Court, R Best, D Fitzpatrick, J Muller (c), D Tuohy, R Wilson, C Henry, N Williams
Replacements (16 – 23) R Herring, C Black, R Lutton, I Henderson, R Diack, R Pienaar, S Olding, M Allen
Leicester Tigers (15 – 9) N Morris; M Benjamin, V Goneva, D Bowden, A Thompstone; T Flood (c), B Youngs; (1 – 8) L Mulipola, T Youngs, D Cole, L Deacon, G Parling, E Slater, J Salvi, J Crane
Replacements (16 – 23) N Briggs, B Stankovich, F Balmain, G Kitchener, T Waldrom, D Mele, O Williams, T Hepetema