The end game was a little more fraught than it should have been, the margin of victory a reminder of the importance of being clinical when dominant but these are subsidiary matters on a night when Ulster’s 18-13 victory over Clermont Auvergne propelled the Irish province to the top of Pool 3, infusing momentum and confidence for the back-to-back games against Harlequins in December.
Clermont have beaten Munster and Leinster in their respective stadiums of choice but for the third time in a Champions Cup pool match found the Belfast citadel impregnable. Ulster set the tone from the opening whistle, tearing after Billy Burns’ kickoff and scrambling to first contest and then win the ball back.
Head coach Dan McFarland explained: “We knew we had to start with energy. We knew we had to bring a fire to the game that said, ‘welcome to Ravenhill Kingspan.’ Traditionally we do that, but people are always surprised when that happens.
“The key thing was to not let the athletes within their team get away with the ball, and we didn’t. We were full of energy, big collisions, a lot of work off the ball to get into the position to make those big collisions, and also in our carries. Some of our carrying was excellent in that first half, making yardage, putting them on the back foot.”
None epitomised this more than the outstanding Marcell Coetzee, a deserved man-of-the-match, but the entire pack would have pressed strongly for considerations in that regard, especially Jordi Murphy and Rob Herring. Murphy’s intelligent support lines and pace saw him making a couple of clean breaks, his work on both sides of the ball hugely impressive.
John Cooney’s brilliant individual try that ultimately decided the game more than atoned for a moment early on in the game when he should have passed rather than tried to beat the last defender, a decision that like his feet came unstuck.
Burns had a fine game at outhalf, his vision in attack, ability to pick a pass, running threat and cross-kicks caused Clermont problems while Will Addison – his tackle on Paul Jedrasiak saved a try – exuded class in most things he did. The rest of the three quarter line were sharp and aggressive in defence and happy to test the tackle.
McFarland paid tribute to defence coach, Jared Payne for his work in preparing the team. “We limited their opportunities when they had the ball in hand. I said before the game we had to hunt like a pack and bring collective pressure and we had to do that constantly and I felt we did that.
“Jared and his preparation of the team and the amount of effort the guys put in did that; on the reverse side we showed glimpses of what we can do in attack if we had been a little more clinical right at the end we’d have had two more tries and they wouldn’t have got a bonus point but I’m probably being a little bit picky there given we won the game.”
He admitted a key was that Ulster repeated the energy and cussedness they demonstrated in eking out a narrow win in Bath last week. “It’s the foundation of what we do. That fight for every inch attitude is literally the foundation of everything we do here. If we don’t do that then we’re in big trouble.
“Ultimately that’s not what wins games for us. What wins games is your ability to make big plays and be precise, and that’s what we’re always working on. We’ve got some great players who can make big plays. We’ll keep working on our position; it could be around discipline, it could be around handling, but we want to play a fast-paced game. In the wet that is difficult, but we need to be good enough to do it regularly. We were good enough to do it on enough occasions to get the win.”
McFarland wasn’t oblivious to the imperfections of the performance, scrum and discipline issues an area of concern when the tournament resumes next month with back-to-back games against English Premiership side, Harlequins.
Ulster conceded two penalties and a free-kick from scrums in the first half, three more in quick succession that eventually led to referee JP Doyle understandably awarding Clermont a penalty try; conceding 15 penalties in total, 11 in the second half usually precludes any team from winning.
The home side did shrug off that handicap but it nevertheless gave the French club cheap access to Ulster’s 22 that the visitors’ general play didn’t warrant, and at the other end of the pitch it also served to release the pressure seal. Clermont will be chuffed to return home with a point.
He explained: “In the second half we gave six penalties away in 20 minutes and lost a little bit of the run of ourselves. There might be a bit of looking at ourselves as coaches because we thought we had delivered the message of discipline, but perhaps we need to look at how we go about being disciplined.
“Those six penalties at the start of the second half sure took the flow out of our game and allowed them to build a little bit of momentum. We have been a little bit up and down discipline wise this season and that second half was not great.”
In relation to the scrum issues he said: “Yeah an interesting one. I am going to have to go look at that because it is a difficult thing to see on the face of it. We got a couple of penalties against us for the scrum going down on Eric’s (O’Sullivan) side. Now we know (Rabah) Slimani is not the cleanest scrummager in the world, he cranks a lot. Eric has got to deal with that but I will have a look at that.
“At the end there, we were just under pressure. We were giving penalties away because we were going backwards.”
McFarland is likely to rest the majority of the team for next weekend’s Pro14 game against the Scarlets with the primary injury legacy, a hamstring strain suffered by Burns.
