Ulster 13 Leinster 30:THIS GAME tells us plenty about what lies beneath the surface in either province. The best way to show the gulf in quality between these two teams at the moment is to highlight the absentees.
Leinster won comfortably despite taking the field without six regular forwards – Cian Healy, Richardt Strauss, Stanley Wright, Nathan Hines, Shane Jennings and Jamie Heaslip – while backs Jonny Sexton, Gordon D’Arcy, Luke Fitzgerald, Rob Kearney and Eoin Reddan are either injured or in Irish camp.
Who needs any of them when Seán O’Brien is in this type of form? This wrecking-ball midland man plays in a bruising fashion that demands team-mates row in behind him (more often than not last night this meant Dominic Ryan and Rhys Ruddock).
Sure, Ulster badly missed important home-grown players like Stephen Ferris and Andrew Trimble but David Humphreys and Brian McLaughlin have built a squad this season with such absentees in mind. Afterwards, team captain Johann Muller admitted they were bullied. A new low when Leinster does this in Belfast. Ulster’s performance in the opening 40 minutes hardly puts Bath, or English rugby for that matter, in a positive light, having logged back-to-back victories over them only to look decidedly powder puff in the collision zones.
Leinster instantly figured out their weaknesses. The pillar defence and resistance in the five-eight channel were atrocious. Either that or Leinster first receivers were unstoppable.
The full house expected far more commitment especially considering 150 of them had pitched up on St Stephen’s Day to shovel the snow off the Ravenhill pitch.
On six minutes O’Brien made the first of multiple carries, scattering through traffic before handing off much-vaunted Springbok scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar for a fine individual try under the posts.
Isaac Boss was next to shred the Ulster midfield. The Kiwi-born scrumhalf was notably enthusiastic to impress on his return North. Despite some decent continuity by the lively Fergus McFadden and Brian O’Driscoll, the move collapsed but the pattern of this contest had been set. Fourteen minutes were barely gone when the locals in the 11,700 full house went silent.
BJ Botha, unforgivably, bought a Boss dummy off the side of a ruck before O’Brien sprinted from deep, a feature of the Joe Schmidt coaching manual, at an impressive angle to hare under the posts again.
Isa Nacewa missed two long-range kicks at goal but he nailed the conversions and two more penalties before half-time. As an aside, Nacewa’s positioning and general contribution were near perfect. His penalties were nullified by a pair from Niall O’Connor but that was all Ulster could muster in the opening stanza.
Tellingly, Nacewa’s second penalty, to make it 20-6, came directly off Mike Ross forcing a free-kick out of young loosehead Paddy McAllister five yards from his own line just before Pienaar fed the scrum.
Leinster opted to pack down again with referee George Clancy quick to signal a penalty as soon as the props, either end of their development, locked arms.
The Leinster scrum inflicted further damage 10 minutes into the second half after Clancy had reset three times. The crowd feared Leinster might go for the jugular but Leo Cullen was content to let Nacewa add three more points.
McLaughlin immediately replaced McAllister and hooker Nigel Brady with Andi Kyriacou and Bryan Young but the damage had been done.
The actual killer blow came just before the hour mark when, after the Leinster forwards almost butchered a certain try by insisting on battering their way over, someone eventually heard Shane Horgan’s desperate pleas from the right wing.
O’Driscoll, Shaun Berne and Nacewa shovelled it out to the isolated Horgan as the cover defenders scrambled unsuccessfully to deny his one-handed touchdown. Nacewa planted the touchline conversion.
A new contest commenced for the last quarter as Ulster went about upping the physicality to deny the visitors the bonus point.
The most recent solution to the Ulster fullback conundrum, Adam D’Arcy, will earn some internal respect when the DVD is viewed today. Just moments after being obliterated by Ryan in his own 22, D’Arcy dusted himself down to rejoin the line, supplying a timely injection of pace and then clever handling to put Craig Gilroy over near the corner flag.
But that was the height of their resistance.
The overall assessment of this match provides further proof of Leinster’s strength in depth and smart recruitment policy.
Ulster also purchased expensive talent, mainly from South Africa, but it was not evident last night.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 6 mins: S O’Brien try, 5-0; I Nacewa conv, 7-0; 14: S O’Brien try 12-0; I Nacewa conv, 14-0; 21: N O’Connor pen, 14-3; 28: I Nacewa pen, 17-3; 31: O’Connor pen, 17-6; 38: I Nacewa pen, 20-6. half-time. 51: I Nacewa pen, 23-6; 56: S Horgan try, 28-6; I Nacewa conv, 30-6; 68: C Gilroy try, 30-11; N O’Connor conv, 30-13.
ULSTER: A D’Arcy; C Gilroy, N Spence, I Whitten, S Danielli; N OConnor, R Pienaar; P McAllister, N Brady, BJ Botha; J Muller (capt), D Tuohy; P Wannenburg, C Henry, R Diack. Replacements: A Kyriacou for N Brady, B Young for P McAllister (both 51 mins), T Barker for D Tuohy (58 mins), L Marshall for I Whitten (64 mins), D Fitzpatrick for BJ Both, P Marshall for N O’Connor (both 69 mins), T Seymour for R Pienaar (77 mins).
LEINSTER: I Nacewa; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, F McFadden, D Kearney; S Berne, I Boss; H van der Merwe, J Harris-Wright, M Ross; L Cullen (capt), D Toner; R Ruddock, D Ryan, S O’Brien. Replacements: I Madigan for B O’Driscoll (64 mins), A Conway for D Kearney (66 mins), B Marshall for S O’Brien, J McGrath for H van der Merwe (both 70 mins), A Dundon for J Harris-Wright, P O’Donohoe for S Berne (both 73 mins), C Newland for M Ross (75 mins).
Referee: G Clancy (IRFU).
