Ulster on the march

"We'll have a semi-final with Munster in Lansdowne Road. Tell the others (the rest of Europe?) to get stuffed."

That was the euphoric response of Ken Reid, the former Irish chairman of selectors, as he looked forward to the draw in Paris tomorrow night.

By common consent this Ulster victory outstripped even the 15-13 win over the Wallabies in 1984. "It's got to be the best ever," said Ulster coach Harry Williams.

"It wasn't a classic, free-flowing game of rugby in terms of openings. But what we've achieved is fantastic. The crowd were brilliant and the team were great. Having the players together so often has to be the way forward for us.

"We were worried about the long lay-off but in the end it didn't affect us too badly. Now we have to balance things up with the clubs but as it stands we have a maximum of two games left this season. That's the way we're looking at it."

There was also a romantic angle to an emotional night. When Wendy Ward's first child grows up, he or she can ask his father Andy: "And what were you doing that day Daddy?"

He won't have trouble remembering. For 49 minutes he was his typical immense self, all the while waiting for word from hospital via a touchside mobile as to when Wendy's labour would be induced.

Williams said: "The agreement we had with both him and his wife was that once things started he would come off. We got word from the hospital, but it's a measure of both him and his wife that he came to play for those 49 minutes and give his all."

The only fly in the ointment was that David Humphreys may have dislocated a joint in his left shoulder, according to his father, thereby leaving the Ulster skipper in a race against time to be fit for the semi-finals on the second weekend in January.