EACH ROUND OF Heineken Cup fixtures can produce a massive sway on the mood and confidence within competing squads.
At the end of round one, Ulster were most definitely dissatisfied with their lot having allowed Leicester sneak a bonus point through the unfinished Ravenhill walls.
Ask them today how things could be better, and they might struggle to look beyond absent personnel rather than any events over four rounds of European competition.
The vital December Heineken Cup back-to-back has yielded an incredible 83 – 3 aggregate win. Most importantly though, the final five tagged onto that number ensured a perfect 10 out of 10 points on the pool five table as Jared Payne secured a bonus through the heavy fog in Treviso.
“When you sit down and map out a season, you’ve a couple of key points,” director of rugby David Humphreys told the BBC in the aftermath of the veiled contest in Italy.
“In the Heineken Cup, after round four we wanted to be top of the table – we’re sitting well. We’ve managed to accumulate a few points so yeah, pressure’s now on Leicester; we can sit back and watch their game tomorrow.”
The Premiership side are in Montpellier hoping to emulate and better Ulster’s feat of winning in the south of France. Should they do so without a bonus point they will remain three points shy of Ulster going in to the final two rounds.
“You sit and watch a little bit in wonder because you couldn’t see a lot of what was happening,” Humphreys said with a laugh before adding that such thick fog was a new experience that had been passed with flying colours.
“It was a pretty surreal experience. I don’t think too many of us have seen conditions like this before so we’d have probably taken four points before the game. To come away with five points, I think it is two jobs very well done over the past two weekends.”
Indeed, but whereas last week’s crisp dry conditions always looked likely to provide a decent return of tries, the weather in northern Italy yesterday was a hive for uncertainty. After 30 minutes, Treviso’s final fired-up game under Franco Smith was deadlocked at three points apiece.
Fortunately, there was no blind panic from the visitors, just a measured touch from Jared Payne’s boot to set up Luke Marshall’s breakthrough try.
It was a score that didn’t exactly open the floodgates, but it did offer breathing space in a hitherto claustrophobic match. That elbow room would allow Paddy Jackson to keep his side edging further clear in the second half and when Brendan Williams was ordered to the bin Ulster used the overlap to create a score for Craig Gilroy.
Starting point
For all that attacking verve, it was the defence which Humphreys singled out for praise after another bout of intense Treviso pressure was absorbed and successfully countered. Moments like this in both matches this month visibly hoovered the belief out of Smith’s charges.
“Our defence has been outstanding. If you think over the last couple of weekends the number of points we scored and only conceded one penalty. I think a huge amount of credit to the players the amount of work that has gone on.
“We’ve built our team around defence in the last number of seasons, if you want to progress and compete at the end of these competitions defence has got to be a starting point.”
And so it proved, but it was the finishing points of Robbie Diack and Payne which have hoisted Ulster to the top of their pool and unshakable as the top seed after four rounds.
The only problem is that so much can still change in the final two games.
