Ulster 22 Munster 6IT'S PERHAPS important to remember that although Ulster went into this game bottom of the table, they weren't that far away from it all clicking together. As Matt Williams pointed out, but for a couple of missed kicks in the narrow defeats to Cardiff and the Dragons, they'd have gone into this game in fourth place. But for those misses, they'd be third now.
All that said and done, this was by some distance the most complete 80-minute display of the season by this young, remodelled team. You could understand why Williams highlighted the Ulster defence afterwards, for they conceded little or nothing all night across the gain line. The work of Paddy Wallace and Darren Cave, especially, in containing the ever-apparent threat of Lifeimi Mafi stood out, all the more so when Munster awoke from their slumber after the interval.
But by then, the damage had been done, Ulster having deservedly created a 15-6 interval lead into a stiff breeze. Indeed, with their scrum on top, their lineout more secure and their scrapping and fighting at the breakdown every bit as furious as Munster's, it could have been much more.
A number of factors contributed to this being Ulster's most dynamic display of the season, not least the presence of all their most dynamic players. You also could not help feeling it all fell into place at least partly because of the 12th-minute introduction of Ian Humphreys. The 26-year-old younger brother of the Ulster legend has apparently suffered for missing four tackles in a pre-season game against Worcester and was heretofore confined to four last-quarter cameos.
His performance here wasn't perfect, but when Niall O'Connor gave way with a hip injury, Humphreys immediately gave Ulster more of an attacking ambit. By dint of running onto the ball closer to the gain line, he checked the Munster defence and brought others into the game, his distribution also providing much more width. There was one sumptuous, angled touchfinder with the second-half breeze straight out of the brother's manual, and his place-kicking, finished off with a left-handed touchline conversion of Ulster's third try on the hour, also hinted at rectifying a long-standing Ulster problem.
It also helped that Williams was able to field a back row of Stephen Ferris, Robbie Diack and David Pollock en bloc for the first time this season.
An injury-battered Ferris is still some way short of his best, but Diack has been a hit, and most of all Pollock, in only his third start of an injury-disrupted season, was a revelation.
His support play augmented early breaks by Cave and Andrew Trimble and he was repeatedly on the shoulder of ball-carriers to provide their running game with a continuity it has lacked. He also made a couple of superb steals and for good measure made his tackles.
Outside Humphreys, Wallace has continued where he left off in the summer tour save for an enforced three-game absence and is in the form of his life, while Trimble too has found some form.
But most of all, the running threat of Timoci Nagusa - so evident in training, by all accounts - finally came to fruition.
In his first four undistinguished outings before being dropped, the 21-year-old Fijian flyer had been marooned on the wing like a tourist who hadn't read the brochure, but when he scored against Harlequins there were hints of the pacy threat Williams had hailed on capturing him.
Imbued with confidence, he hit the line through the middle with stunning effect here for two first-half tries that effectively decided the match. A Ravenhill star is born.
The first try showed the value of having a second playmaker in Wallace, as the Fijian took his inside pass to score like a knife through butter, breezing past Barry Murphy and leaving Peter Stringer and Denis Hurley chasing his shadow.
The second, off good work by the excellent Rory Best and Diack, exposed even greater chinks in Munster's surprisingly poor defensive and attacking shape, as he again left the same two players and Paul Warwick for dead.
Wallace was just denied a contender for try of the season after his give-and-take off Nagusa's superb offload and then his chip-and-gather, but Ulster were helped no end by a strangely porous Munster defence and by the visitors' atrocious kicking game with the wind. Four bad kicks in rapid succession, by Stringer, Murphy, Hurley and Warwick, led to Humphreys initially drawing the sides level.
Forced to run into the wind after the resumption, Munster played well but were largely obliged to do so from deep by Ulster's superior kicking and better chasing.
After Isaac Boss had swivelled away from Mike Prendergast and beat Anthony Horgan's blindside tackle for the third try, had Ulster opted for scrums rather than kicking to the corners they might even have earned the bonus point.
But in any event, after their fourth league win out of six at home to Munster, their season is up and running now.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 6 mins: Warwick pen 0-3; 22: Humphreys pen 3-3; 26: Nagusa try, Humphreys con 10-3; 29: Warwick pen 10-6; 33: Nagusa try 15-6 (half-time 15-6); 50: Boss try, Humphreys con 22-6.
ULSTER: B Cunningham; T Nagusa, D Cave, P Wallace, A Trimble; N O'Connor, C Willis; J Fitzpatrick, R Best (capt), BJ Botha; E O'Donoghue, R Caldwell; S Ferris, D Pollock, R Diack. Replacements: I Humphreys for O'Connor (12 mins), T Court for Fitzpatrick (47 mins), C Del Fava for Caldwell (47-54 mins) and for O'Donoghue (67 mins), I Boss for Willis (51 mins), T Anderson for Ferris, M McCrea for Cunningham (both 71 mins), N Brady for R Best, Fitzpatrick for Botha (both 72 mins), Willis for Wallace (78 mins). Sinbinned: Caldwell (29 mins).
MUNSTER: D Hurley; A Horgan, B Murphy, L Mafi, I Dowling; P Warwick, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, D Fogarty, T Buckley; M O'Driscoll (capt), D Ryan; A Quinlan, J O'Sullivan, J Melck. Replacements: J Coughlan for O'Sullivan, M Prendergast for Stringer, J Manning for Denis Hurley (all 51 mins), Darragh Hurley for Buckley (67 mins), K Lewis for Horgan (71 mins), Buckley for Pucciariello (78 mins). Not used: J Flannery, M Melbourne.
Referee: Alain Rolland (IRFU).
