Champions Cup: Leicester Tigers 38 Ulster 10
In many ways, Saturday night’s defeat to Leicester was a microcosm of Ulster’s season. Plenty of graft and eye-catching moments from younger players, but ultimately errors betrayed the side’s inexperience.
With 10 minutes on the clock at Welford Road, Ulster were leading 10-0. They battled to keep in touch with a possession-hungry Leicester outfit, Michael Cheika’s side sneaking into the lead with the last play of the half.
A 12-10 deficit at the break was manageable. Things quickly turned. Within a 16-minute span in the second half, Ulster conceded four tries while adding none of their own. Twice Leicester scored a pair of tries within a two-minute interval. Ulster compounded errors with further recklessness, offering Leicester a comfortable victory.
In that second-half flurry, Tigers relied on their dominant maul to suck in Ulster’s defence. Ollie Hassell-Collins gleefully accepted space to score once the ball was spun wide. He added a second moments later when Rory Telfer spilled a kick inside his own 22. Leicester cut open the Ulster midfield with a backline strike off the scrum, Hassell-Collins beating the final two defenders with his strong footwork.
Josh Bassett added to his first-half double – both courtesy of Ulster being caught narrow inside their own 22, a recurring trend on the night – when Zac Ward failed to deal with a grubber in behind. Ward’s fumble of a first half high ball also gave Leicester the platform for Bassett’s second earlier in the game.
To round off the comedy of errors – though no one wearing white was laughing – Ben Carson’s loose pass on the hour mark was a classic case of overplaying inside your own half. Telfer could not gather it but Bassett could, offloading to Izaia Perese for a simple score. Carson looked good when carrying in the first half, but his defensive work coupled with that error showed what he is: a 22-year-old short of minutes at this level.
“The pressure comes on, the guys feel they need to play because they’re behind, but the more they play the more trouble they play into,” said Ulster coach Richie Murphy. “It’s probably a little bit of experience in that regard, when to take the right opportunity to play. We want to play, but you can’t play off the back of slow ball with a full line in front of you.
“Towards the end of the game we had a 20-year-old outhalf, two 22-year-old centres, a 21-year-old fullback/winger and a scrumhalf playing fullback. It’s a disjointed set-up at the moment but the great thing is we’re used to it because we haven’t been able to select from a full deck of players all year, so you just roll on to the next week.”
‘I’ve been involved a lot in turnarounds’: Michael Cheika on his coaching philosophy and career to date
Nick Timoney, the province’s busiest player with a game-leading 21 tackles and 38 metres carried, the most of any Ulster man, refused to blame youth alone.
“To make it abundantly clear that the reason we’re not winning these games isn’t we’ve got young lads playing, it’s all of us,” he says. “There’s myself, Hendy [Iain Henderson], Andy Warwick, all these lads who’ve been around for years, all of us need to be better too.
“You’ve got to show that you’re not, not that you’re not phased, but I’m around long enough to know this is part of the game. I’ve experienced losses and worse losses than this and better days than this. It’s not necessarily a crisis, it’s not great.
“If the lads my age can make sure we’re not pointing the finger at anyone else, we’re pointing it at ourselves, trying to get better, if everyone takes that example, we’ll do a good job cultivating that culture. We’ll be in a good place.”
Timoney also scored Ulster’s lone try on nine minutes, cashing in on some poor Leicester backfield play as Handré Pollard and Hassell-Collins allowed a high bomb bounce between them. Ulster’s backrow couldn’t believe his fortune as the ball rebounded into his arms with a clear run to the line.
“It was pretty lucky all right but you chase enough of them, it’s nice to get gifted one every now and then,” says Timoney. “I knew that wasn’t going to be a running trend, their backfield is normally world class.”
Remarkably, or shamefully, given the ludicrous Champions Cup format, Ulster can still mathematically reach the last-16 despite losing all three games so far with a points differential of -89. Playing Exeter at home next week, a bonus point win with a big margin, coupled with a Bordeaux hammering of the Sharks – a likely outcome – could see Ulster sneak through.
“The only thing we want to do is beat Exeter,” says Murphy. “We want to win a game in this competition.”
“I think there’s also the Challenge Cup place on the line for getting a win [over Exeter],” points out Timoney, correctly. “So we’re not throwing the dice and hoping a miracle happens, there’s legitimately something to play for.”
Scoring sequence – 8 mins: N Doak pen 0-3; 9: N Timoney try, Doak con 0-10; 18: J Bassett try, H Pollard con 7-10; 40 Bassett try; Half-time 12-10; 47: O Hassell-Collins try, 17-10; 49: Hassell-Collins try, Pollard con 10-24; 61: Bassett try, F Steward con, 31-10; 63: I Perese try, J Shillcock con, 38-10;
Leicester: Freddie Steward; Josh Bassett, Izaia Perese, Solomone Kata, Ollie Hassell-Collins; Handré Pollard, Jack van Poortvliet; Nicky Smith, Julián Montoya (capt), Joe Heyes; Cameron Henderson, Jed Holloway; Finn Carnduff, Tommy Reffell, Olly Cracknell.
Replacements: Emeka Ilione for Carnduff (50 mins), Joseph Woodward for Kata (54 mins), Ben Youngs for van Poortvliet (60 mins), Dan Cole for Heyes (60 mins), Jamie Shillcock for Pollard (62 mins), Charlie Clare for Montoya (64 mins), James Whitcombe for Smith (64 mins), Harry Wells for Holloway (69 mins).
Ulster: Ethan McIlroy; Werner Kok, Ben Carson, Jude Postlethwaite, Zac Ward; Aidan Morgan, Nathan Doak; Andrew Warwick, John Andrew, Scott Wilson; Iain Henderson (capt), Cormac Izuchukwu; James McNabney, Nick Timoney, David McCann.
Replacements: Rory Telfer for McIlroy (23 mins), Jack Murphy for Morgan (50 mins), Eric O’Sullivan for Warwick (52 mins), Kieran Treadwell for Henderson (54 mins), James McCormick for Andrew (56 mins), Corrie Barrett for Wilson (56 mins), Harry Sheridan for Izuchukwu (65 mins), John Cooney for Doak (56 mins).
Referee: Craig Evans (WRU)
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