For sheer, raw, gut-wrenching excitement and the most dramatic of climaxes, this latest effort by the White Knights of Ulster ranks right up there.

Plan A having failed in part due to David Humphreys' prolific run finally coming to a halt, they threw the kitchen sink, the crockery and the cutlery at last year's Heineken Cup finalists, before finally Tyrone Howe delivered the match-winning try with the last act in the 86th minute.

For the bravery of their performance, they just about deserved their last-ditch reprieve which, at a stroke, gives them three wins out of four. Never mind that Stade remain placed above them due to a six tries to two aggregate over the two head-to-heads and so are almost certain to top the pool.

The trip to an off-colour Wasps now assumes massive importance, for a win there will leave them with Treviso at home and almost certainly within another victory of the quarter-finals.

Bearing in mind the two-year hangover after their European Cup success and the relative strength of personnel at their disposal, that would be a mighty achievement to set alongside their progress to a home quarter-final in the Celtic League.

Clearly, Alan Solomons has revived some of the all-for-one camaraderies of that memorable odyssey three seasons ago. Yet, this was an altogether different win really than the 33-27 victory over an equally star-studded Stade Francais team in that quarter-final.

While Andy Ward gave another tour de force, Gary Longwell's influence rose as the night progressed, Mark Blair and Tony McWhirter had big games, and in general the Ulster pack fronted up pretty well, in actual fact their scrum was again in trouble while their line-out wilted under pressure when it needed to provide a telling late platform.

It seemed then that Ulster's flawed set-pieces, particularly when set against the excellent scrum and line-out maul employed by Stade, would cost them dearly, all the more so given Humphreys could land only three from eight penalty attempts. But to the outhalf's credit, he didn't let it get to the rest of his game.

Allowing for all that, when the dust had settled you had to have a little sympathy for Stade, whose rearguard action in the final quarter was simply awesome. With a temporary stand installed again in the Cherryvale end of the ground, and a sell-out capacity crowd of 12,000, Ulster and Ravenhill combined were clearly trying to re-invoke the spirit of 1998-99.

It all went swimmingly until David Humphreys addressed his first penalty attempt in the second minute, and promptly hooked it wide from a favourable left-sided angle about 30 metres out.

Diego Dominguez then put Stade ahead with a penalty off the upright, but the Italian became a little ruffled and lost his own bearings as the night progressed.

Amid some fractious and fragmented exchanges, Humphreys landed two penalties to get the Ravenhill roar going, but a stunning line-out maul by Stade from the Ulster 22, though eventually stopped just short, culminated in the clever Fabien Galthie popping the ball to Mike James on the blind side. The Canadian lock could scarcely have believed his unopposed flop over the line.

Nonetheless, a third Humphreys penalty from six attempts, restored Ulster's lead and, even though he missed from inside his own half and hobbled off at half-time, for those of a superstitious slant, Ulster trailed by a point when overcoming Stade in the quarters three seasons before as well.

Dominguez restored Stade's lead after the resumption and gradually Humphreys resorted to Plan B, by attacking the gain-line and getting Ulster's continuity game going, all the more so after their scrum was turned over at the base when Richard Pool-Jones nabbed Russell Nelson and Dominguez brilliantly chipped ahead off the recycle for Sylvain Jonnet to score adroitly.

Dominguez gave the home crowd and team a lift by missing the conversion, however, to go with a couple of missed penalties earlier on and there followed the most edge-of-the-seat end-game imaginable as they came knocking on four successive occasions with compelling and concerted drives.

A torrent of penalties went against Stade as they played with scant regard for the offside line and, when another was awarded under the posts everyone, including Stade, waited for Ulster to concoct a set move.

Instead Neil Doak, whose influence, like that of Paddy Wallace, grew after shaky starts, tapped and passed. Suddenly, two passes later, Howe had a run for the line as Stade had briefly switched off, and the winger pinned his ears back to make it by the corner flag.

Wallace, to a deafening roar, even had the temerity to land the touchline conversion.

Oh ye of little faith.