European Cup / Leicester 49 Ulster 7:A few of us were tempted to call up last week's report from Ravenhill, change the names and write the same account. But this was different. This was of bigger dimensions than the 33-0 defeat suffered by Leicester last Sunday in Belfast.
A bad day for Ulster's White Knights. And the gamblers in the camp? Those thrill-seekers who dip their toe into the current trend of spread betting? An 80-point swing. Oh my.
For Ulster, the positive side may be that Saturday was one of those cathartic games, where all the badness of their season was purged in one desperate match. From here Alan Solomons can start anew, as Leicester coach Dean Richards was forced to do after last week.
With two matches remaining, it seems they must win both to have any hope of moving on from a pool in which it has proved impossible to win away. Those words "bonus points" loom large.
Ulster, second in the table with nine points, one behind Leicester, have just a week to recover from this mauling before travelling to Paris to face Stade Francais. Their final game is in Belfast against Gwent Dragons on January 30th.
This was Leicester's day, start to finish. A rout, a cakewalk, a whitewash, whatever you wish to call it. The pack shredded the Ulster front eight. Ben Kay and Martin Johnson dominated the lineouts and the Ulster scrum even rumbled backwards on a number of occasions. In contact Leicester rarely spilled while Ulster ran into a green wall every time they launched an attack.
Five tries later, with two from inside centre Leon Lloyd and one each from openside flanker Neil Back, remoulded outhalf Jaco van der Westhuyzen and Martin Johnson, combined with a string of six penalties and three conversions from full back Sam Vesty, and Ulster were lucky it was not more. In the first half alone, while they nicked three of the home side's lineouts, they lost five of their own.
"The games were a mirror image of each other," said Solomons. "Today we were not on our game. They were on their game. Nobody in this pool has yet won away from home.
"We appreciated that they were playing at home and, having been stung by a heavy defeat, it was going to be an uphill battle. If you play in a tournament like this and you are off your game and they are on theirs, you are going to take a heavy defeat. Today we were unable to reach the intensity required to compete against a quality team like Leicester."
To Ulster's credit they didn't fold. With steely determination they soldiered on, with the entire bench coming in to help the tattered effort. Finally James Topping was rewarded in the dying minutes of normal time with a try, and David Humphreys kicked only his second attempt of the match to convert for one of the province's biggest hidings for some years.
For Leicester, it was redemption of sorts after a week in which Richards's obituary had been written. True, the two-time champions must also win their final two pool games, away to Dragons and at home to Stade Francais, but from burnt-out has-beens last week they are now installed as favourites to advance from Pool One.
"Eighty points difference," said Richards rhetorically. "The difference in performance was huge. I was expecting a fired-up Leicester today. Certainly we were expecting to win. We'd a point to prove. All week, there was a buzz about the place. The turnaround is quite immense."
Richards can now expect some of his injured players to filter back to the training pitch, while Solomons will have concerns over centre Shane Stewart, who cracked his knee early in the game and was forced out.
Now, it's to Paris to face a struggling Stade, who nonetheless keep their faint hopes alive. Win or bust.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 5 mins: S Vesty pen 3-0; 8: Vesty pen 6-0; 26: L Lloyd try, Vesty con 13-0; 36: Vesty pen 16-0; 40: Vesty pen 19-0; 40 (+5): N Baxter try 24-0 (half-time 24-0); 43: Vesty pen 27-0; 47: N Back try, Vesty con 34-0; 51: J van der Westhuyzen try, Vesty con 41-0; 73: J Topping try, D Humphreys con 41-7; 78: M Johnson try 46-7; 83: Vesty pen 49-7.
LEICESTER: S Vesty; A Healey, G Gelderbloom, L Lloyd, N Baxter; J van der Westhuyzen, H Ellis; G Rowntree, D West, D Morris, M Johnson, B Kay, W Johnson, N Back (capt), H Tuilagi. Replacements: S Booth for Healey (57 mins), W Skinner for Tuilagi (61 mins), J Richards and R Nebbet for Morris and West (both 66 mins).
ULSTER: P Wallace; J Topping, S Stewart, P Steinmetz, T Howe; D Humphreys, N Doak; R Kempson, M Sexton, S Best, M Mustchin, R Frost, A Ward (capt), N Best, R Wilson. Replacements: A Larkin for Stewart (18 mins), R Moore for S Best (50 mins), M McCullough and W Brosnihan for N Best and Mustchin (54 mins), B Cunningham for Wallace (60 mins), P Shields for Sexton (66 mins), K Campbell for Doak (70 mins).
Referee: N Williams (Wales)
