Leicester Tigers 20 Ulster 9:At Welford Road, Ulster deserved something from this Heineken Cup Pool 4 encounter, but got nothing. They're not the first outfit, nor will they be the last, to play Leicester on their home patch and say the same thing, but this was a harsh lesson for Brian McLaughlin's side, one which could prove crucial in an extremely competitive pool.
For a good 60 minutes of the game, Ulster seemed the more likely side to cross the whitewash in a game dominated by penalties but Leicester are wise old Heineken Cup campaigners. They soaked up everything Ulster had to throw at them and kicked free in the game’s final 15 minutes with an opportunistic try from centre Matt Smith.
After an ugly first period, one during which Roman Poite’s whistle well and truly dominated proceedings, the sides went in level 9-9 at the interval. Ian Humphreys, back at his old club, landed three from three – two of which were struck from the halfway line – while Toby Flood kept a limited Leicester outfit in the game with three successful kicks from four over the course of the half.
In between Poite’s whistle and the impressive place-kicking of both out-halves, there was hardly a backline move worthy of the description in the entire half, although Ulster were most certainly the more progressive side in terms of intent, if not quite execution.
The visiting side’s young centre combination of Nevin Spence and Darren Cave were lively, but neither could quite engineer their way through a disciplined home defence. All Leicester could offer, meanwhile, in 40 minutes of rugby was a bustling charge down the left by Alesana Tuilagi late in the half, a run which Andrew Trimble and Simon Danielli halted.
The second half continued in much the same manner. On 45 minutes, Ulster were pinged on the deck on halfway and Flood continued the theme of the evening by floating the penalty between the sticks to put the Tigers in front for the first time. Humphreys, not long after, had the opportunity to even matters up once again, but this time the Ulster number ten sliced his kick wide of the left-hand post. It was to prove crucial.
Leicester are the kind of side who don’t give up a lead too easily, particularly on home turf, and after successfully soaking up everything Ulster could throw at them, they turned the screw on 68 minutes in crossing for the game’s first try.
It wasn’t pretty – nothing about this game was – but after a garryowen from Geordan Murphy had caused havoc inside the Ulster 22, Leicester swung the ball left for Flood to kick a little grubber into the Ulster in-goal area. Matt Smith, the Tigers centre, was quickest to the chase and got downward pressure on the ball to effectively seal the victory for the home side.
Ulster battled hard in the game’s closing moments in attempt to score the points they needed to earn a losing bonus point, but in reality they didn’t even get close. Leicester tackled like demons as the clock ticked down and with the last kick of the game, Flood landed his fifth successful penalty of the night to put a little gloss on the scoreline.
Leicester:Murphy; Agulla, Smith, Forsyth, A. Tuilagi; Flood, Harrison; Ayerza, Chuter, Cole; Deacon, Parling; Croft, Salvi, Waldrom. Replacements:Skivington for Parling (54), Youngs for Harrison (57), Castrogiovanni for Cole (57), Stankovich for Ayerza (75), Mafi for Croft (75). Not Used:Hawkins, Staunton, Morris.
Ulster:Danielli; Trimble, Cave, Spence, Gilroy; Humphreys, P Marshall; Court, Best, Fitzpatrick; Muller, Tuohy; Ferris, Henry, Wannenburg. Replacements:D'Arcy for Danielli (68), Macklin for Fitzpatrick (68), Jackson for Humphreys (74). Not Used:Brady, McAllister, Stevenson, Faloon, Porter.
Referee:R Poite (France).
