Ulster 41 Leicester 7:Two first-half tries from Ireland international Andrew Trimble paved the way for Ulster to complete a stunning bonus-point victory over Leicester in front of a packed and passionate Ravenhill this evening.
The result moves Brian McLoughlin’s side on to 19 points in Pool 4, seven clear of the Tigers, and eight clear of Clermont Auvergne, who travel to Aironi in the search of a bonus-point win tomorrow.
Ulster must travel to France in the final weekend, but even if they were to lose their final pool game, and on tonight’s form they will go their in buoyant mood, they may already have done enough to claim one of the best second-placed finishers and earn a quarter-final berth for the second year in a row.
Trimble won his battle against Alesana Tuilagi hands down, showing brilliant finishing skills on the right wing to score tries after five minutes and just before the break in the first half.
Both scores were referred to the Television Match Official, but Trimble did brilliantly on both occasions to touch down before going into touch.
In the week where he signed a new deal for the province, scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar showed his value with the boot in converting Trimble’s first try from wide on the right and also added a long-range penalty after 11 minutes.
Trimble was caught out for Leicester’s try after 13 minutes, coming up too quickly in defence as Ben Youngs’s brilliant pass released Leicester skipper Geordan Murphy to go over.
Billy Twelvetrees added the conversion to reduce the deficit to three points, but a lack of discipline saw the English side cough up far too many penalties.
Pienaar added a second penalty just after the half-hour mark and Ulster rounded off the opening period in brilliant fashion when Trimble got over for his second five-pointer to leave the home side 18-7 up at the interval.
With Ulster’s pack in dominant form, the home side controlled the second half, Pienaar slotting over three penalties in the space of 10 minutes to push his side out to a 27-7 lead.
Leicester were in desperate need of closing the gap in a bid to gain a losing bonus point, but their chances received a huge blow on 64 minutes when frontrow replacement Dan Cole was sent to the sin-bin for dissent.
And five minutes later Ulster were to go over for their third try, when winger Craig Gilroy collected a great pass from number eight Pedrie Wannenburg to go over in the right corner.
And with eight minutes left, Ulster capped a brilliant night’s work when replacement Paul Marshall took a quick tap penalty to waltz in under the posts to a deafening cheer from the home support. Pienaar converted the extras for a personal haul of 21 points but the five points earned in a real team effort look like it will keep Ulster going in Europe into the spring.
SCORERS - Ulster:Tries: Trimble 2, Gilroy, P Marshall. Cons: Pienaar 3. Pens: Pienaar 5.
Leicester:Try: Murphy. Con: Twelvetrees.
Ulster:Terblanche; Trimble, Cave, Wallace, Gilroy; Humphreys, Pienaar; Court, Best, Afoa, Muller, Tuohy, Ferris, Henry, Wannenburg.
Replacements:Whitten for Cave (57), P Marshall for Humphreys (65), Brady for Court (76), Black for Best (76), Macklin for Afoa (76), Stevenson for Ferris (71), W Faloon for Wannenburg (71). Not used: D'Arcy.
Leicester:Murphy; Agulla, Smith, Allen, A Tuilagi; Twelvetrees, B Youngs; Ayerza, Hawkins, Castrogiovanni, Mafi, Parling, Croft, Salvi, Waldrom.
Replacements:Staunton for Smith (59), Harrison for Youngs (76), Chuter for Hawkins (66), Cole for Castrogiovanni (55), Slater for Mafi (57), Woods for Waldrom (75). Not used: Stankovich, Hamilton.
Sin Bin:Cole (64).
Referee:Romain Poite (France).
