Ulster 29

La Rochelle 36

Ulster will feel like they had their own version of a (Minor) Miracle on Lansdowne Road as they somehow managed to battle back from a 29-0 deficit at half-time against La Rochelle to take two points from their Heineken Champions Cup clash at the Aviva Stadium.

In a game surrounded by controversy, with the tie switched from Kingspan Stadium to Dublin despite the pitch being, in the words of chief executive Jonny Petrie, “firm but playable”, it looked at half-time as if Dan McFarland’s side were on their way to another European hiding off the back of their 39-0 thrashing by Sale Sharks a week ago.

French fly-half Antoine Hastoy, who kicked five penalties and scored a try before Luke Pearce blew for half-time, and centre Jonathan Danty pulled the strings for Ronan O’Gara’s men to put them 29-0 ahead at the interval and seemingly on their way to a comfortable night’s work against a hapless Ulster display.

But whatever McFarland said at half-time worked as his side was transformed in the second half, led by the excellent Tom Stewart and Ethan McIlroy and running in four tries to secure one bonus point and picking up the second thanks to John Cooney’s nerveless penalty with the final play of the game.

From seeming dead and buried – and not even guaranteed to put a point on the board at the halfway stages of the pool campaign – Ulster are alive again in the Champions Cup, up to seventh in Pool B and knowing that they are likely only one win away from securing their place in the knockouts.

There will still need to be an inquest into what was an atrocious first half performance that saw them torn to shreds by O’Gara’s side, who were every bit as scintillating as Ulster were poor and indisciplined, but the spirit shown in the second half will certainly have McFarland purring after two utterly disastrous results against Leinster and Sale Sharks.

They couldn’t quite pull off the full turnaround, Pierre Bourgarit’s second half try – Stade Rochelais’ only points of the second half – ultimately the difference, but to deny their visitors the bonus point and get two of their own will be significant moral victories if they are in the market for those.

But they will still need to look at what went wrong in a first half that saw them 9-0 down by the midway point, the excellent Hastoy slotting over three penalties as Ulster’s discipline decided to take an early Christmas vacation, the province consistently getting on the wrong side of Pearce.

As good as he was, Hastoy wasn’t flawless as he pushed another penalty – this time a longer-range effort – wide of the uprights, but the table would tilt firmly in the visitors’ favour when Iain Henderson was sent to the sin-bin for a marginal call off the back of a Bourgarit line-break, the flanker yellow carded for dragging the ball back on the Ulster side despite it seeming to come loose at the ruck.

That infringement would end up costing Ulster ten points, Hastoy converting the resulting penalty and then putting the opening touchdown of the game on a plate for Brice Dulin, the fly-half’s kick in behind sitting up just enough for the France international to dive on it in the corner for the seven-pointer after the extras were added from the touchline.

But even when Henderson returned to the pitch things didn’t improve for Ulster, and if it seemed like Hastoy’s fifth penalty of the first half would end the half on a sour enough note, the fly-half would make it even worse when he got in on the try-scoring action with the final play before the interval.

When so much is going against you, it feels like your luck is abandoning you, and that is how it would have felt for Cooney. The scrum-half won the race back to Hastoy’s kick in behind – the La Rochelle man seizing on a dropped pass by Luke Marshall and hacking through – but was unable to hold onto the bouncing ball, allowing his opponent to steal in and dot down.

Looking flat, lifeless and devoid of ideas in the first half, as they trudged into the dressing room at half-time, Ulster were a shell of the side they appeared to be three weeks ago. And yet whatever McFarland said at the interval clearly had its desired effect.

From the first blast of Pearce’s whistle for the second half they looked more dangerous, pop passes from Stewart and Mike Lowry sending Rory Sutherland and Nick Timoney on mini surges respectively, and when Dulin could only put the ball down behind his own line off a Cooney box kick, Henderson was able to burrow his way over for their first points of their European campaign.

It looked like that was only a temporary revival, though, as back came La Rochelle, and Bourgarit benefitted from some confusion at a five-metre lineout to steal in and claim the bobbling ball right out of the hands of McIlroy to go over for what would prove to be the clinching try.

But when it seemed like all was lost for Ulster, they pulled something out of the fire, even if it wasn’t the win they wanted.

Cooney’s try proved to be a double blow for La Rochelle as not only did the diminutive scrum-half manage to wriggle over for the try but Danty also saw yellow for taking one too many bites at the ball in the build-up, and that would be a decision that would cost his side another try as Duane Vermeulen managed to latch onto the end of a crossfield kick from Stuart McCloskey for Ulster’s third.

And in the dying stages, they managed to turn no points into two. The excellent Stewart managed to pilot a maul over the line with a few minutes remaining for the fourth try to put one point on the board before a superb Nathan Doak penalty nudged play deep into the 22 and another maul infringement from the visitors gave Cooney the chance to add the second.

The scrum-half duly converted despite the pressure on his shoulders and, while it’s not four points they’re coming away with, Ulster may have just found the performance that snaps them out of their recent funk.

Scorers: Ulster: Tries: Henderson, Cooney, Vermeulen, Stewart; Cons: Cooney (3); Pen: Cooney

La Rochelle: Tries: Dulin, Hastoy, Bourgarit; Cons: Hastoy (3); Pens: Hastoy (5)

Ulster: Mike Lowry; Ethan McIlroy, Luke Marshall (Stewart Moore 74), Stuart McCloskey, Rob Lyttle; Billy Burns (Nathan Doak 22), John Cooney; Rory Sutherland (Eric O’Sullivan 61), Tom Stewart (Rob Herring 52-66), Marty Moore (Gareth Milasinovich 61); Alan O’Connor, Sam Carter (Kieran Treadwell 54); Iain Henderson, Nick Timoney (David McCann 66), Duane Vermeulen.
Yellow card: Iain Henderson (25′)

La Rochelle: Brice Dulin; Dillyn Leyds, Ulupano Seuteni (Levani Botia 66), Jonathan Danty, Pierre Boudehent (Raymond Rhule 66); Antoine Hastoy, Tawera Kerr-Barlow (Thomas Berjon 40); Reda Wardi (Thierry Paiva 51-69), Pierre Bourgarit (Quentin Lespiaucq 66), Uini Atonio (Joel Sclavi 51); Romain Sazy, Will Skelton (Ultan Dillane 61); Rémi Bourdeau, Yoan Tanga (Paul Boudehent 49), Gregory Alldritt.
Yellow card: Jonathan Danty (60′)

Ref: Luke Pearce (England)

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