Ulster extended their 100% Heineken Cup win record to five victories from five tonight at Ravenhill against French visitors Montpellier, setting up a mouth-watering Pool Five showdown against Leicester Tigers next Saturday.
The only team still to boast an unbeaten campaign at this stage of the competition, Ulster were comfortable throughout tonight’s game but – with scores from Robbie Diack, Ruan Pienaar and John Afoa – will be disappointed not to have secured a fourth try and bonus point which would have afforded them a little more security ahead of next weekend’s clash at Welford Road. Nevertheless, Ulster sit atop the group on 22 points, and with Leicester travelling to Treviso tomorrow, Mark Anscombe’s men will go into the final pool game at least two points ahead of the chasing Tigers.
Swift exchanges after an early Ulster scrum led to the award of a third-minute penalty on the Montpellier ‘22’, driven just wide by Pienaar, whose kicking had been so precise against Munster seven days earlier. The visitors’ scrum-half Eric Escande went one better than his opposite number three minutes later, dipping his kick just over the Ulster crossbar from an identical distance to establish an early lead.
An abrasive palm-off from Dan Tuohy got Ulster well into Montpellier territory on 12 minutes, but the French defence stood up defiantly to block ensuing charges from Afoa, Luke Marshall and Craig Gilroy until a knock-on eventually blighted the move. Then Escande only just missed out on adding a further three points when his penalty fell a metre short of the posts, and out-half Enzo Seponi’s drop-goal attempt spun marginally wide in the next attack.
These two close shaves seemed to jolt Ulster into life, Jared Payne and Gilroy injecting some tempo into the game with an incisive run apiece through the heart of the Montpellier midfield. However it was Paddy Jackson who proved the architect of the first Ulster score, as he knifed a sublime crossfield kick towards the left-hand corner flag to pick out Robbie Diack five metres from the line. The flanker still had plenty to do, using all his upper body strength to withstand Lucas Dupont’s tackle and force the ball over the line.
Pienaar converted and, three minutes later, he both started and finished the move for Ulster’s second try. Following Jackson’s lead and kicking over the heads of the retreating French, the Springbok capitalised on a bobbling ball and some Montpellierian hesitation five metres from home to recuperate his own kick and dive over for the simplest of tries.
Pienaar converted again, but the lead was rapidly reduced when hooker Charles Geli somehow broke clean through a 10-man maul inside the Ulster ‘22’ and supplied lock Robins Tchale-Watchou to ground the try. Escande added the conversion, before he and Pienaar traded penalties to leave Ulster with a slender four-point advantage at the break.
Half time score: Ulster 17 Montpellier 13
With Roger Wilson in the mix as a half-time replacement for Nick Williams – as well as former Ravenhill favourite Timoci Nagusa, hoping for a romantic winning return to his old stomping ground – Ulster continued to chip away at the scoreboard, courtesy of another well-executed Pienaar penalty on 43 minutes. This was cancelled out by Escande five minutes later, before some virtuoso ball-carrying from Chris Henry put Ulster back in control deep in French territory.
After Payne had done well to spoon the ball up off the ground as the attack spread to the left wing, Jackson again opted to go with the boot, but his dink forward fell less kindly for the Ulster runners than it had for Pienaar in the first half, and Montpellier were able to clear. The move was not without its consequence for the home team, however, as Gilroy was rapidly replaced by Michael Allen after colliding with Trimble as they both gave chase.
Despite this setback the third Ulster try was not long in coming, and again it stemmed from a fortunate bounce. The alert Afoa gathered a ball which had looped backwards in the ‘22’ over the heads of chasers on both sides from a smart Pienaar kick, and bulldozed his way the short distance to the line. Pienaar put away the conversion to set the score at Ulster 27 Montpellier 16 with an hour gone.
After Escande hit the upright with a 66th minute penalty, a Pienaar charge-down and dribble almost brought the bonus-point try, although TMO replays suggested there was a fair chance the ball had been held up behind the line by the tracking Pierre Berard. Undeterred, Ulster continued to press, and opted for a five-metre lineout on 71 minutes when the French front row popped up at the scrum. The ball was moved well from the set-piece, and Allen was unfortunate to let his foot stray just into touch on the left wing as he shaped to touch down.
Ulster’s final surge came on 78 minutes, another close-range line-out working well until an unlucky knock-on put paid to any hopes of a third consecutive pool-stage bonus point.
ULSTER (15-9): J Payne; A Trimble, D Cave, L Marshall, C Gilroy; P Jackson, R Pienaar; (1-8): T Court, R Best, J Afoa, J Muller (c), D Tuohy, R Diack, C Henry, N Williams;
Replacements (16-23) R Herring, C Black, D Fitzpatrick, I Henderson, R Wilson, S Doyle, P Marshall, M Allen.
Montpellier (15-9): A Floch; Y Artru, A Tuitavake, T Combezou, L Dupont; E Selponi, E Escande; (1-8): N Lelemalefaga, C Geli, M Bustos, M De Marco, R Tchale-Watchou, K Galletier, A Bias, J Beattie (c)
Replacements (16-23): M Ivaldi, M Nariashvili, P Faanunu, Y Watremez, F Quercy, B Paillaugue, P Berard, T Nagusa.