Loss of control
THE START WAS almost perfect from the northern province. They marched out on Welford Road with confidence and put together a commendable 22 phases that was only ended by a cynical hack from Jordan Crane.
That however, was as good as it got for Neil Doak’s side in the first half. Leicester did get the rub of the green on their TMO call and when Tommy Bowe was called back. However, as with last week, Ulster were unable to play the game in opposition territory and had to force the game in their own half.
That led to Paul Marshall throwing this pass, which resulted in a Leicester try.
Discipline
We asked the question of Ulster’s discipline midweek and were left with more questions than answers.
Like it or not, tackling a man jumping for the ball is outside of the laws and after Tommy Bowe was penalised for contacting a leaping player, Craig Gilroy should have been able to show more restraint and avoid his yellow card.
Obviously these players know the rules – they saw what happened to Jared Payne against Saracens in last year’s quarter-final – and that is what makes these cheap penalties so frustrating. The Gilroy card came at a crucial time and Leicester put their foot on the throttle and took full advantage.
Lineout struggles
Once again, Rory Best’s throwing came under scrutiny. While some of Ulster’s lineout woes were down to great athleticism from Graham Kitchener and his mates, there were a couple of noticeable overthrows from the Ireland hooker. Ulster lost seven lineouts on their own ball, which is unacceptable if you have aspirations of getting an away win in Europe.
Best is a dynamo around the park but when his throwing comes under pressure, it doesn’t always stand up to the test. With such imaginative first phases moves in their arsenal, Ulster need clean lineout ball. Allen Clark needs to work on that area before the visit of Toulon next weekend.
Combinations
The backline that finished the game saw Stuart Olding at 12, Darren Cave at 13 and Jared Payne at 15. As soon as these changes were made, they paid dividend. Stuart Olding’s distribution from 12 gave the outside backs plenty of room to work with and Gilroy and Bowe both cut a couple of gorgeous lines that resulted in fantastic scores.
Payne also looked much more comfortable in the counter attacking role that earned him such acclaim when he first started playing serious minutes for Ulster. Do these second half performances signal the future backline going forward? Payne has struggled at 13, and if Neil Doak and company take anything from tonight’s game, it should probably be that he should be moved back to FB.
The Bonus Point swing
Near the end of the first half it looked almost certain that Leicester would grab their bonus point try and that Ulster were likely to leave with nothing in the process. That would have heaped an ungodly amount of pressure on Neil Doak’s side ahead of next weekend’s seismic Ravenhill clash with Toulon.
Instead, the Ulster defence held firm for the remainder of the game and only allowed six second half points. When you factor in the point Ulster gained for getting back to within seven, that is a massive swing in their favour and it could have a huge bearing on the final standings in the pool.
