Mission accomplished with little fuss. Although Ulster can be thankful that they came up against a Glasgow shorn of talent like Lamont and Weir, they despatched their opponents in a thoroughly professional manner, which suggested that they would have coped with the Warriors’ finest.
In a first half afflicted by torrential rain, both sides understandably struggled to play with much fluency. Ulster, despite some problems in the scrum, seemed to cope slightly better but could still have found themselves behind but for some fairly ropey place-kicking by Glasgow’s Peter Horne, who assumed the kicking duties in the absence of the injured Duncan Weir.
In the second half, the Ulster pack, aided by some fine tactical kicking by Ruan Pienaar and (not so) wee Paddy Jackson, raised their game appreciably blasting through Glasgow’s fringe defence to spend most of the third quarter in enemy territory. But it wasn’t until the hour mark that Chris Henry’s score from a well-organised rolling maul confirmed that this would be our night. From then on it was never in doubt and Matawalu’s 77th minute try resulting from a deft chip by replacement Scott Wright was scant consolation for the Glaswegians. With no points from the first two rounds, they must surely now be out of contention.
Whilst not pretty, it was an impressive performance by the Ulstermen. It is easy to underrate the Warriors. They have a top-class scrum, especially impressive at the moment given the number of front row players out injured, and a decent set of backs. In Stuart Hogg they have, for me, Rob Kearney’s only realistic contender for the Lions 15 jersey. He has everything you’d want in a full-back: searing pace, quick feet, good lines of running and the ability to kick the ball (almost) as far as Hugo McNeil.
Ulster got the tactics spot on. Keep it tight, pin them back at every opportunity, let them run at us and trust our outstanding defence to do the rest. It is worth contrasting Ulster’s performance with that of Munster at Racing Metro last weekend. Both Anscombe and Penney appear to be urging their charges to play the fast off-loading game and both provinces have played some cracking rugby in the Rabo. But whereas Munster seemed to eschew the sort of rugby for which they are justifiably famous for just when they needed it most, Ulster adjusted the gameplan to suit the conditions on the night and Anscombe even persuaded Nick Williams not to try any of his dodgy off-loads.
If Anscombe was the architect, Pienaar was the foreman. His vision, decision-making and execution were world class – let’s hope Conor Murray was watching. And whilst he missed both the penalty kicks he attempted, they were from 62 and 55 metres and would have split the posts had he had an extra half a Weetabix. As Munster know better than anyone, this is a fearsome weapon that must affect the way opposition teams contest the breakdown around the half-way line.
It was notable that anything from within 50m was entrusted to Paddy Jackson, which would seem to be a measure of how much confidence the management team have in the ginger prodigy. He is looking more assured with every game and again gave a near flawless display of kicking from hand and tee. For me he is more Sexton than O’Gara: his defence is robust and he appears to read the opposition lines well – he secured one interception and narrowly missed out on another occasion. He is a lively runner and managed to keep a talented Glasgow back-row honest with a couple of half-breaks. Looks like Madigan v Jackson will be the next instalment of the historic Irish 10 dilemma.
Despite the result, there is plenty for Anscombe and his team to work on. Many have pointed out that the lineout wasn’t at its imperious best. However, a return of 16 won and 2 lost seems pretty good given the conditions even if some of the ball coming back on our side was a little scrappy. Whether the problem was timing or monsoon, Rory’s darts were pretty impressive given the conditions. Indeed the Poyntzpass man looked back to his top form in all aspects of his game and was rewarded with the nod for Man of the Match from Scott Hastings.
The scrum creaked alarmingly at times, conceding too many penalties. A team with a decent goal kicker (Ulster had 3 better than Peter Horne on the pitch) would have made us pay more. That said, to put things in perspective, Ulster won’t come against many better scrums as noted by Tom Court in his Youtube interview earlier in the week. Massimo Cuttitta, the newly installed Scotland scrum-coach, who is helping out with Glasgow and Edinburgh, is clearly having an impact (which is disconcerting for Irish fans as the IRFU continues to vacillate over the appointment of their own scrum coach). But Ulster will need to work on the scrum as their next Heineken Cup outing is against one of those few at Franklin Gardens on 7th December. The Northampton pack is amongst the best in Europe and they are masters of the dark arts of the scrum (expect to see Tonga’huia, Hartley and Mujati doing plenty of standing up for the Ulstermen in December).
In the plus column, Ulster’s breakdown work was excellent. They were strong, accurate and aggressive with Best, Henderson and particularly Chris Henry, outstanding. Henry, my pick for man of the match even before he spun out of the back of a well-organised driving maul to touch down just after the hour mark, is consistently performing at the top of his game. With O’Brien injured, he must have an outstanding chance of starting against the Boks and the Pumas. If he doesn’t, it can only be because Jenno is also in the form of his life or that he isn’t from Cork.
Jonny Bell must also have been delighted with Ulster’s defence. Physical as ever, the organisation was excellent and was only unlocked by a break which was more NFL that rugby union. How the ref missed the obvious block by Alex Dunbar is a mystery to rival how he didn’t see Henry’s touchdown. Iain Henderson built on his excellent all-round performance against Castres, with a fabulous defensive performance leading the tackle count with 11, 3 ahead of the next best – Chris Henry. At 20, Henderson is already looking the part. More than comfortable at the top level of club rugby, it is surely only a matter of time (weeks?) before he gets a run out at international level. The only thing that might count against him is that his management team (Ryan Constable and Bryn Cunningham) are confined to BBC NI whereas Frankie Sheahan gets to promote Peter O’Mahoney shamelessly on RTE and Sky.
Overall, this was the sort of performance that marks the contenders from the flash-in-the-pans - Leinster from Harlequins in last year’s competition for example. Time to investigate accommodation in D4 in May? Not yet but with Ulster the only senior European club to be unbeaten in all competitions, I’m certainly excited and really looking forward to the double-header against the Saints in December. In the meantime it’s back to the Rabo next Friday and a chance for me to pull on my white shirt and stand up for the Ulstermen at Rodney Parade.
Can’t wait.
