Whatever about Ravenhill bringing out the best in Ulster - their best was hardly required for this grim affair - it certainly seems to bring the worst out in Munster. At a rainswept Ravenhill last night, the visitors lost their heads and this game long before the end to extend their remarkable winless sequence in Belfast to 11 games and 21 years.
Ulster were far more sure of what they were about. Their lineout was near faultless, driving impressively off Allen Clarke's accurate throwing or releasing the ball quickly. They had more assurance in the pivotal out-half position, where David Humphreys varied his game pretty confidently, whereas an unsure and overly safe Ronan O'Gara clearly didn't enjoy the destructive tendencies of the omnipresent Andy Ward.
Jonathan Bell also gave them more potency in midfield, but in the heel of the hunt, all they had to do was master the basics, make their tackles and keep their heads. Alan Lewis, with a good deal of help, did the rest with a veritable concerto and a 17-12 penalty count to the home side as Munster conceded penalties with impunity for Simon Mason to dip his bread with 19 points. Munster looked a sorry bedraggled bunch by the end and now prop up the table, which, in the cold light of day, is probably where they admit they belong on form.
Amid shades of last year, when Munster began in a torpor, Ulster were again quickly into a 10-0 lead. Munster couldn't be accused of a sleepy start this time. They were possibly too disrupted by the loss of Eddie Halvey, whose absence was acutely felt, and Shane Leahy - necessitating interpro debuts for Jerry Murray and 19-year-old World-Cup winning lock Donnacha O'Callaghan. They were also, if anything, too pumped up, confounding a dismal return from the early restarts (they lost six of the first seven) by conceding five of the first six penalties.
Fumbling the Ulster kick-off, then stepping in front of Killian Keane's drop-out after David Humphreys had miscued a drop-goal attempt, Munster gave Ulster the early foothold from which Dominic Crotty misjudged Simon Mason's towering garryowen for Jan Cunningham to gather and score amid suspicions of a knock-on.
Mason converted and as Ulster drove well off their line-outs, added a penalty as Mark McCall's withdrawal was hardly felt. With Lewis's whistle dominating proceedings in a fragmented and, inevitably, increasingly fractious first half, Killian Keane pulled his first penalty wide before Mason tacked on two more penalties to make it 16-0.
Munster's mood darkened as Lewis overturned a close-range Munster penalty in favour of a defensive Ulster scrum, seemingly for the tap not being taken from the exact mark - an Irish speciality this one - then adjudged Frank Sheahan's throw a few metres out to be fractionally crooked.
Then Lewis mystifyingly spoke to both captains at length before Keane opened Munster's account, the pep talk being followed by the first punch-up two minutes later.
The Munster pack gradually picked up the tempo with their pick-and-go drives. Usually either a prominent David Wallace, a pumped-up Peter Clohessy or Anthony Foley were to the fore and Keane made further inroads with a couple of post-interval penalties.
But Anthony Horgan was ridiculously adjudged to have run into his own player after fielding a well-judged Humphreys grubber, and from this territorial foothold Johnny Bell cut through a well-populated Munster midfield. Jerry Murray bravely stopped him, but the ball was recycled for Murtagh Rea to plough over.
As Munster's frustration grew, both with Lewis and the Ulster line-out, which they began to drive through with impunity before the jumper landed, Mason's boot edged Ulster further out of sight with a couple more penalties in response to another from Keane. An increasingly flustered Peter Clohessy was spoken to, and David Corkery was yellow carded. Grim stuff till the end.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins Cunningham try, Mason con 7-0; 16 Mason pen 10-0; 21 Mason pen 13-0; 24 Mason pen 16-0; 33 Keane pen 163; 42 Keane 16-6; 47 Keane pen 16-9; 51 Rea try, Mason con 23-9; 54 Keane pen 23-12; 61 Mason pen 26-12; 75 Mason pen 29-12.
Ulster: S Mason; J Davis, J Bell, J Cunningham, A Park; D Humphreys, A Matchett; J Fitzpatrick, A Clarke, G Leslie, M Rea, G Longwell, D Macartney (capt), T McWhirter, A Ward. Replacements - S Duncan for Macartney (72), R Irwin for Leslie (79).
Munster: D Crotty; A Horgan, K Keane, M Lynch, J Kelly; R O'Gara, B O'Meara; D Cloh essy, F Sheahan, P Clohessy, M Galwey (capt), D O'Callaghan, D Wallace, A Foley, J Murray. Replacements - (temporary) I Murray for D Clohessy (34-40), D Corkery for Murray (53), M McDermott for Sheahan (56-66).
Referee: Alan Lewis (Leinster).
