Tonight at Kingspan Stadium Ulster exited the European Rugby Champions Cup with ironically their strongest display of the campaign, as Darren Cave contributed three tries in a 26-7 bonus point victory over Leicester Tigers.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: ULSTER 26 LEICESTER TIGERS 7
Both Darren Cave and Craig Gilroy – the scorer of the fourth try – put forward weighty arguments for Ireland selection on the cusp of the RBS 6 Nations, but in truth the entire Ulster team can be proud of their performance.
Some exemplary defending kept out Leicester, who still had an outside chance of progressing to the quarter-finals had they secured a bonus point win themselves.
Giving his reaction after the game, man-of-the-match Cave said: “It’s my first hat-trick for Ulster but I didn’t have to do much for any of the tries.
“I’m just happy to be playing and we had been written off and had our backs against the wall in this tournament. We didn’t have anything to play for but pride because it was a dead rubber. We had to the play for the people here and the Ulster shirt and that’s what we did.”
Ulster could have been on the scoresheet as early as the first minute when Tommy Bowe only narrowly failed to hold on to the ball as he charged down a hurried clearance on the 22, but a surrendered lineout deep in their own half eight minutes later put the hosts under considerable pressure until Mike McComish was able to hack away a loose ball.
Moments later, as Ulster pressed again, a clever dink over the line from out-half Ian Humphreys just eluded Luke Marshall and dropped out of play, and as the game continued along its end-to-end flow, Leicester failed to capitalise on a 15-metre lineout before Cave opened the scoring on the 20-minute mark.
Persistence was key in the try, with over a dozen phases rolled out – and a few close calls as several forwards, including Iain Henderson, who had an excellent return from injury, stretched for the line off the back of a rolling maul – before the centre picked up on the right wing 10 metres from home and forced his way over. Humphreys’ conversion attempt spun well wide.
Leicester responded brightly, piecing together a good 10 minutes’ worth of pressure which Ulster defended manfully with a series of bruising tackles – the pick of the bunch a bone cruncher by Marshall on Logovii Mulipola which stopped the prop, a full five stones heavier than the Ulster centre, dead in his tracks.
Then, as half-time loomed, sheer determination from Ulster wrenched possession back from Tigers on the verge on their 22, and a delightful angled run and feed back inside from Humphreys set Cave free for his second try of the night. Ruan Pienaar added the extras for a 12-0 buffer at the break.
Humphreys was again the provider for Cave’s hat-trick score on 43 minutes, his sleight of hand once more creating the space for the centre to run on to, although Cave still had plenty to do as he drove his way in between two Leicester tacklers to crash over.
Pienaar converted and with Vereniki Goneva soon sin-binned for a high tackle on Jared Payne, Ulster wasted no time in capitalising on their numerical advantage. Gilroy touched down on 50 minutes by the left corner flag after a pinpoint crossfield pass from Pienaar to Payne.
After another Pienaar conversion, hopes of an Ulster shut-out evaporated as winger Adam Thompstone broke away from Wiehahn Herbst and Humphreys to score in the right corner, Freddie Burns topping up the tally to seven points.
A rejuvenated Leicester camped in the Ulster half from the restart and as the hosts absorbed attack after attack, loosehead Callum Black was sent to the bin for infringing at the scrum.
With Ulster short-handed, a Tigers try looked inevitable, but dogged defending kept the Aviva Premiership side at bay for the entirety of Black’s absence – even when he was joined in the bin by fellow prop Herbst on 70 minutes.
Nevertheless, buoyant Ulster continued to defend with aplomb, even closing out the game on the attack in the search of a fifth try.
The result consigns Leicester to a disappointing Champions Cup exit at the pool stages, with Toulon the only qualifiers from the pool on 22 points, Leicester in second place on 13, Ulster third on 12, and the Scarlets bottom with eight.
The Ulstermen now take a two-week break before the GUINNESS PRO12 resumes on Friday, February 13 with Benetton Treviso the visitors to Belfast.
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