Who needs the English when you can have this? Ravenhill's European Cup opener was a right roller-coaster of a ride, often loose, sometimes ragged and punctured with some porous tackling, but it was richly entertaining and, fittingly, went down to the wire.
The lead changed hands five times before the sides were finally levelled with Duncan Hodge's 82nd-minute drop goal. Ulster will be sickened by that but can also reflect on a sleepy start which saw them 14 points down inside four minutes.
In between times they were often the better side and seemed to have done enough for a badly needed home win when they established some control on proceedings as David Humphreys kicked for position cleverly inside the final half-hour. Alas, Simon Mason missed a chance to kick them six points ahead and then Hodge applied the coup de grace.
Right at the start Ulster were hit with the sort of sucker punch they inflicted on Munster two weeks ago at the same venue. This time Mason failed to control a high up-and-under from Duncan Hodge, and the ball rebounded off the full-back's shoulder for Jamie Mayer to pounce.
Inside four minutes they were 14 points down, the Reivers' scrum-half Iain Fairley sniping off ruck ball on halfway, beating Mason's tackle and putting Tony Stanger away. Though Jan Cunningham brilliantly caged the Lion, Adam Roxburgh was in support to score; Hodge converting both.
Mason, who was probably thoroughly fed up with himself at this juncture, vented his frustration in the best way possible, embarking on a mildly astonishing solo run inside the Reivers' 22 in which he must have beaten six men before scoring.
The full-back added the conversion and a penalty before Ulster, remarkably, stole in front by the 14th minute. Off a recycled back row scrum move inside the Reivers' 22, Andy Ward had a dart up the left and was held up, but made the ball available in the tackle for the ever-available Stephen Bell to put Stephen McKinty through a surprisingly large hole.
Even then, however, some marshmallow tackling by Sheldon Coulter and Mason enabled Cammy Murray to skip up the blindside off the restart for a soft try. Ulster's response in turn was the try of the match.
Stephen Bell initiated the flowing move with a quick tap penalty on his 22, and David Humphreys deftly put Jonathan Bell into space. The ball was recycled and moved left from inside the visitors' half for Mason to float a long skip pass to Andy Ward, by now obliged to play on one side of the pitch because of a groin strain that would force him off at half-time.
However, even on one leg, he's better than most on two, and he took out two men superbly before offloading a try-scoring pass in the tackle one-handed to the looping Jan Cunningham. Mason converted to make it 22-19 after 22 minutes. The game then took a breather and Mason and Hodge exchanged penalties to leave it 25-22 at the break.
Ulster began the second half as sloppily, missing too many tackles and leaving themselves overstretched as Humphreys bravely hauled back Graham Shiel only for Murray to arrive in support for a soft try under the posts which Hodge added to.
But their response was just as sharp. Johnny Bell punched up the middle and Clarke supported Stephen Bell before Humphreys attacked the blindside and put Cunningham through on a superbly angled scissors run. Mason's conversion made it 32-29.
After the sides had shared four penalties, Mason missed a semi-insurance penalty three minutes from time and two minutes into injury time Hodge didn't with an unerring 35-metre drop goal off a lineout. The competition's highest-scoring draw came down to that.
Scoring sequence: 2 mins: Mayer try, Hodge con, 0-7; 4: Roxburgh try, Hodge con, 014; 5: Mason try and con, 7-14; 11: Mason pen 10-14; 14: McKinty try, 15-14; 16: Murray try, 1519; 22: Cunningham try, Mason con, 22-19; 32: Mason pen 25-19; 38: Hodge pen, 25-22; 45: Murray try, Hodge con, 25-29; 52: Cunningham try, Mason con, 32-29; 58: Hodge pen, 32-32; 61: Mason pen, 35-32; 66: Mason pen, 38-32; 68: Hodge pen, 38-35; 82: Hodge drop goal, 3838.
ULSTER: S Mason; S Coulter, J Bell, C van Rensberg, J Cunningham; D Humphreys (capt), S Bell; J Fitzpatrick, A Clarke, G Leslie, M Rea, G Longwell, S McKinty, T McWhirter, A Ward. Replacements: S Duncan for Ward (half-time), A Matchett for S Bell (60 mins), R Irwin for Leslie (65 mins), R Weir for Clarke (73 mins).
EDINBURGH REIVERS: H Gilmour; T Stanger, J Mayer, G Shiel, C Murray; D Hodge, I Fairley; B Stewart, G McKelvey, M Proudfoot, D Burns, G McCallum, T McVie, B Renwick (capt), A Roxburgh. Replacements: A Tait for Gilmour (23 mins), C Mather for Roxburgh (29 mins), S Scott for McKelvey (69 mins), G Hayter for McVie (71 mins), C Chalmers for Stanger (78 mins).
Referee: G Borreani (France).
