Ravenhill roar returns as Ulster open path to knockout stages
ULSTER bounded back from a grim festive period in glorious style, acclaimed by a packed Ravenhill, after seeing off France’s best team of the last 18 months with a performance drenched with the kind of focus and commitment so glaringly lacking in recent weeks.
So, it’s Coventry to which Ulster will gingerly go to next Sunday in possession of a lifeline few expected them to have after the abject poverty of their league form which had badly tarnished the reign of underfire Les Kiss, too many players inexcusably missing in action when the going got tough.
The worst was feared going into yesterday’s clash but they doggedly recovered back from a loose start, showing tremendous resolve to claim a victory which leapfrogs them to top of the pool and gives them everything to play for when they visit Wasps in seven days’ time.
This three-tries-to-one win over La Rochelle sees them finally finish a three-match home pool schedule unbeaten for the first time since 2013/14, the last season they reached the knockout stages.
Even a win at Wasps is no guarantee Ulster will clinch pole position, but at least they travel to England rejuvenated after a fraught cup classic that became so tense it was bereft of a score in the closing half-hour.
The defining statistic that could have beaten them and placed a question mark over the future of Kiss was the five to 11 penalty count referee Wayne Barnes ruled against them, their scrum one of their weaknesses.
This punishment could have been even heavier, so frantically aggressive did they become defending the breakdown. But the official crucially made one other key decision which threw the hosts their first-half lifebuoy, preventing them from drowning amid a dominant early French onslaught that appeared to have the winning of the match.
Ulster were starved of possession and territory in the opening 20 minutes, Rochelle’s incessant pressure putting them six points clear. Scrumhalf Alexi Bales landed two kicks and he would have been backed to whip over a third when Barnes’ arm again stretched out, but the kicking tee dramatically wasn’t needed.
Replacement Paul Jordaan stupidly clattered into the aerial Charles Piutau after Bales kicked through on the advantage. It resulted in Barnes altering his initial decision and instead carding the reckless sub who was later hooked.
In an instant, the sense of terrace foreboding lifted, the one-way direction of traffic ceased, Ulster began to show real attitude and momentum shifted just as it had done here on New Year’s Day when the cards came out in the Pro14 versus Munster.
A gallant chase from halfway to the goalline by John Cooney, their most consistently enthusiastic player this season, flicked the switch that culminated in the confidence-restoring 28th-minute try.
It was simplicity at its best. A penalty to the corner. A throw to the lifted Alan O’Connor. A maul that blitzed forward. And then a deft spin off by the scoring Rory Best, the skipper playing his talisman role to the hilt in making good his team’s revival.
The try went unconverted, but Ulster still secured an interval lead. Jordaan was just back from the bin when it all clicked again, the hosts this time working lineout ball over and back with repeated pick and drive. Only when Barnes’ arm came out to signal advantage did they go for broke, Louis Ludik getting the benefit of the doubt when scooping ball falling at his feet.