Ulster v Munster

Ulster 21 Munster Bs 24

Last Night I dreamed of Mandalay. Or more accurately last night I went to two Rugby matches, the bizarre thing is that both were played in the same place, with the same players and the same referee. They took place one after the other and they were as different as chalk and cheese.

In the first I watched the Ulster of old that I had grown used to watching on a Friday night. They played some beautiful rugby and their backs tore the Munster defence to shreds in a scene reminiscent of that wonderful evening last October against Toulouse. In the second The Ulster of more recent times returned and a team of capable journeymen sent up to Belfast more in hope than in expectation confounded and confused their opponents and blew them off the park to score 21 unanswered points and leave the Ravenhill Faithful reeling in disbelief.

It had all started so brightly. In the first half it was Ulster with their 13 international players who looked like the team in charge. Despite being unable to field a restart properly throughout the whole first half they nevertheless managed to secure possession and test the Munster defence at every opportunity.

Munster looked like a typical Munster side forward dominated, and a bit ponderous in the backs. Mark McCall was at last trying something new by playing Paddy and Trimby in the Centre and Steiner on the left wing, and it seemed to be working our backs were in a class of their own with pace, power and invention. Ferrins charged down a clearance kick but Cullen rescued then Tommy Bowe nearly opened the scoring in the right hand corner being denied at the last moment by an excellent cover tackle from – Cullen (again). It was only a temporary setback though and as Ulster continued to press the Munster defence Steinmetz took a lovely line in off the left wing gathering the ball at pace and bursting through the defence to open the scoring.

After the restart Muster’s prop Buckley took exception to being cleaned out from a ruck and landed a punch on Justin Harrison. The ref lost no time in sending him to the bin for ten minutes to cool off. This was to be Ulster’s first test of their new attitude. So many times n recent games Ulster have failed to make points from their numerical superiority. At first it looked as if this might be no different, as Munster started to play with more composure and determination, but Ulster worked their way up the field and started to pile on the pressure, finally making it count when Roger Wilson took the ball over in the right corner. At fourteen nil it seemed as if the writing was on the wall for Munster.

Munster scored a Penalty to register their first points of the game and Ulster replied with another beautifully taken try from Andrew Trimble and everyone all around the ground was wondering not if but when the bonus point try would come and how big a margin we were going to win by. As both teams left the field for half time spirits were very high.

I don’t know what Declan Kidney said to his charges during the half time team-talk and I don’t know what Mark McCall said to his. But whatever it was Kidney got his right and McCall got his dreadfully wrong.

Muster came out like a team fired up and believing that they could still win the game. Ulster seemed to have swallowed their own hype and just believe that they had to go through the motions to seal the win. How wrong they were.

Munster pressed their way up the field to the Ulster line and stretched the Ulster defence right then left and back right again finally opening up a hole big enough to drive a bus through. Hickey converted and that score brought Munster right back into the game at 21-10. Ulster continued to press for the bonus point even spurning opportunities for 3-pointers in favour of the taking a line-out close to the Munster line. But Munster had fixed their defence in the changing room at half time and Ulster’s exciting backs were effectively emasculated. It seemed like the harder they pressed the worse they became and still Munster continued to press and to harry. When Munster were awarded a 5-metre scrum O’Sulllivan picked up and drove over the line for Munster’s second try. At 21-17 they were now just a single score behind.

And still they came pressing Ulster back at every opportunity and looking every bit as dangerous as Ulster looked hapless. A defensive mistake from Paddy Wallace carrying the ball over Ulster’s own line gave Munster another five metre scrum. This time a cross-field kick from to Carney and the rugby-league convert scored in his first competitive Union game. Again the conversion was good and Munster were now, unbelievably in the lead with about 5 minutes to play.

To be fair Ulster tried right to the end and even passed up a kickable penalty which would have secured a draw in favour of one final push for the line, one last shot at a bonus-point win, but it was not to be. Ulster knocked-on, then final whistle went and it was the Munster bench jumping up and down with joy in celebration of a well deserved win.

In truth the Magners League has now gone the way of the HEC and Ulster are now effectively out of competition for anything meaningful this season. Some serious questions will need to be asked and answered and something has got to be done.