Leinster flatter only to deceive

So much sun, so much expectation, and so much disappointment. As anticlimactic starts go, Donnybrook's joint-opener in the Guinness-sponsored Interprovincial Championship took the biscuit. Leinster got there in the end in a nerve-janglingly taut finale but made desperately heavy weather of it in well nigh perfect conditions. Ultimately they flattered to deceive a little with a bright enough two-try first quarter and had lost the plot before Richie Governey and Martin Ridge eventually put Darragh O'Mahony over just as the fat lady was clearing her throat.

A crowd of over 3,000 had come in hope of something new, especially from the Leinster blues in their smart, new-age strip. Desperation fast overtaking composure though, in the end they borrowed from the past through directionless, panic-stricken tap penalties and a torrent of five metre scrums.

There were shades of the banging away against a Leicester brick wall last season, and of countless other Irish occasions. This was not the incisive decision-making that Brian Ashton and Irish rugby was looking for.

It says everything about the occasion that the most impressive, abiding memory of the match - apart from the high number of spilled balls in contact - was Ulster's defence.

Ulster says no, and all that, and it would have been justice of sorts if they had held out. Granted, Leinster were generally the ones trying to make things happen and you could see what their coach Mike Ruddock was getting at when he observed afterwards: "We were definitely superior to Ulster in many ways I felt, enjoyed the major share of possession but unfortunately we conceded far too many penalties in the first half together with a charge-down try. So really our mistakes kept them in the game and made it hard for ourselves."

They did, after all, create three tries to Ulster's one, which in a sense Leinster created as well. Yet it was almost as if they were too convoluted in trying to make things happen, as if everything had to be pre-ordained rather than playing it off-the-cuff.

Ulster, too, seemed to read them like a book. As he pointed out later, Davey Hazlett has "worked with virtually every one of those players" and they were queuing up for Victor Costello and the Leinster runners off the fringe.

Indeed, Leinster might have been better served taking note of their first try, when two men marked Costello and Ciaran Clarke acted as another decoy for Alain Rolland to score with a swift, arcing break off a scrum.

But apart from a couple of early Costello drives, they made little inroads. At times it looked as if there were two different games inside one. Leinster, lying deep and with their close-in runners making little yardage, kept playing behind the gain line; whereas Ulster played on it.

Leinster's second try came when swift transfer from a ruck saw Kurt McQuilkin draw two men and release the flying Dennis Hickie to score from inside halfway by taking Robin Morrow on the outside in a way that no other winger in these interprovincials can do.

Otherwise though, Hickie was starved of chances - a damning indictment of Leinster's driving second phase play and back play given their voluminous set-piece possession. The line-out was good, Trevor Brennan engineering several big turnovers by turning the man in the tackle, but Leinster lack a genuine openside, as highlighted by the impressive Andy Ward.

Ciaran Clarke did hit the line well and Hickie was different class but the midfield, where McQuil kin's impact was far less than expected, couldn't release Hickie. Indeed, Ulster won the 10-12-13 battle by a mile.

Stanley McDowell, especially, and Sheldon Coulter had a huge tackle count and the waspish Coulter made more inroads in midfield than anyone off limited opportunities. One such dancing break at the end of the first quarter broke the initial line of defence, excellent angles of running and sleight of hand by Stuart Laing, the centres and Jan Cunningham only floundering when Graham McCluskey spilled Cunningham's inside pass for what would have been the try of the match.

In contrast to the flawless Laing, whose 100 per cent kicking rate contributed to his side's tally of 25 points, Governey had one of those days he'll want to erase from the memory, even if video nasties will be compulsory to iron out the rustiness. He needs to lengthen his passing and hurry up his line-kicking, for Laing's charge-down try was coming a mile away.

Armed with information from his stats' men, Ruddock seemed to change the game plan after the break. The Leinster pack took on Ulster in units rather than individually, usually driving off Aaron Freeman's flow of clean line-out takes. Camping in the Ulster 22, they starved Laing, Coulter and Co of ball, and at least they got there in the end.

Ulster will wonder where Dave McHugh got three and a half minutes of injury time from. Leinster and the crowd will wonder where he got his interpretations from. Four penalties against Leinster in the first seven minutes for not staying on their feet set the tone.