THE MOST OBVIOUS part of Ulster’s plan to upset Leinster in last weekend’s URC quarter-final was their contestable kicking game.

This centred around scrum-half John Cooney hanging the ball up for Jacob Stockdale to contest in the air.

Ulster felt they could win these aerial battles, particularly against Leinster halfbacks Jamison Gibson-Park and Ross Byrne, who often drop into the backfield in defence.

It worked well for Ulster in a few cases and nearly produced big moments on a couple of other occasions.

Indeed, it was a Leinster knock-on under a high ball that gave Richie Murphy’s side their first attacking platform of the game inside the home team’s half.

Leinster do well with their ‘escort’ work ahead of the ball here, the retreating players essentially blocking Stockdale and the other chasing Ulster players from getting through into a contest with Jimmy O’Brien.

But the Leinster fullback misjudges the landing point of Cooney’s kick – which is relatively shallow – and gets beyond the ball as he attempts to catch it.

As we can see below, O’Brien is ahead of the ball as he attempts to catch it, rather than leaping up and through the landing point.

Even if O’Brien did want to make an overhead catch, he makes his life difficult by jumping that bit too far upfield, meaning the ball comes down behind him.

He can’t reel it in and Ulster get a scrum for the knock-on, breaking off it through Cormac Izuchukwu and nearly scoring the opening try of the game.

Ulster continued with their contestable kicking plan the next time they had possession in the middle third of the pitch as Cooney hung up another tester.

This kick comes on just second phase of Ulster’s possession from a goal-line drop-out, underlining how it’s a planned tactic rather than kicking because their ball-in-hand attack has no momentum.

Leinster out-half Byrne is in the right-hand side of Leinster’s backfield after kicking the drop-out and Cooney hangs the ball over him. Gibson-Park’s escort line is pivotal to denying Stockdale the chance to win the ball back for Ulster.

Gibson-Park subtly accelerates across Stockdale’s most desirable running line – directly to where the ball is going to land.

It means Stockdale has to arc slightly to his left and with Gibson-Park giving him a light nudge right before the ball comes down, Stockdale doesn’t get up ideally to win the ball over Byrne, who has had to move out to his right.

It’s unfortunate for Ulster because if Stockdale wins the ball in the air, he has fullback Stewart Moore [pink below] working up on the inside looking for a possible offload.

Even if the offload isn’t on, Ulster would be a few metres out from the tryline against a scrambling Leinster defence.

But Gibson-Park’s work in putting Stockdale off proves crucial and there’s relief for Leinster as the ball bounces into touch.

Leinster exit from their 22 but once again, Ulster kick high in return.

This time, Leinster aren’t able to get any escort in place, meaning Gibson-Park is left exposed in the backfield as Cooney’s kick hangs in the air.

Nick Timoney and Stockdale both get through with ease and the Ulster wing has a clean chance to regain the ball and send his team firmly onto the front foot and into the Leinster 22.

However, Stockdale knocks on and the opportunity is missed.

The next Ulster kick that pressured Leinster wasn’t of the contestable variety but it must have caused stress in the home side’s coaching box.

On this occasion, Ulster have failed to win the gainline and generate momentum from a lineout attack so out-half Billy Burns picks out space behind Leinster right wing Jordan Larmour and finds grass.

The ball sits up for O’Brien covering across in the backfield and then he makes a risky decision to kick on his left foot despite Stuart McCloskey bearing down on him at speed from that side.

Leinster are fortunate that the ball ricochets off McCloskey’s blockdown straight into touch. A better bounce upfield and McCloskey might have scored a try here. 

It’s an escape for Leinster, who recover to make an excellent exit from the ensuing lineout.

And it’s the home team who open the scoring despite all the pressure from Ulster in the first quarter. Frustratingly for Ulster, the try comes from another aerial contest that doesn’t go their way.

This time, it’s on the right-hand side of the pitch although Stockdale is the primary chaser again after an exchange of kicks sees him shifting over to that side.

Cooney hangs up a good kick and Stockdale gets around the retreating Leinster players as Caelan Doris belatedly realises he needs to escort Stockdale.

It’s a one-on-one between Gibson-Park and Stockdale in the air but the Leinster scrum-half’s right hand makes contact first and the ball bounces down into the grateful arms of O’Brien.

It’s a touch of luck perhaps – the fine margins – but Leinster take full advantage. O’Brien carries back at Ulster, with Joe McCarthy and James Ryan delivering an excellent clearout on jackal threat Greg Jones.

Even as O’Brien is carrying here, we can see that Leinster out-half Byrne has recognised the opportunity.

He is shouting and signalling for the ball to be moved quickly infield because he recognises how Ulster are so bunched onto their right-hand side from where they kicked.

As we can see below after O’Brien’s carry, there are six Ulster players in the shortside and only one Leinster attacker in Doris.

At least one of those defenders needs to fold across to the left-hand side of the ruck before Gibson-Park passes the ball. There’s plenty of time to do so and it’s sloppy from Ulster not to get at least one extra body onto the other side.

Those six Ulster players also include both left wing Stockdale and right wing Mike Lowry, one of whom needs to be working hard to get into the backfield at this moment given how big a chance Leinster have to attack if they move the ball.

There is some communication between the pair, as we see below, but there’s also a delay in Lowry taking off into the backfield to track across.

Had Lowry or Stockdale gone earlier, Ulster would obviously have been better set to defend what comes next.

One of them dropping into the backfield would have allowed Moore to shift across to the left-hand side earlier.

That in turn would likely have seen McCloskey set up in a narrower position than he did on the left edge of the Ulster defence, at least forcing Leinster to make more passes out to their right if they were to score.

As it is, Ulster are ripe for the picking on the openside and Leinster move the ball into space with slick passing.

Gibson-Park hits Josh van der Flier at the heart of a three-man pod of forwards and having darted at the line, condensing an already exposed Ulster defence, van der Flier sweeps the ball out the back to Byrne.

Byrne does a good job of taking the ball at Matty Rea, forcing him to turn in and tackle, before releasing his pass to Tadhg Furlong before contact. The tighthead then shows his class by stepping to his outside to lure Billy Burns inwards, tying in a second defender as Cooney stretches to tackle the prop, before slipping Jamie Osborne away.

McCloskey [pink below] has recognised that Stockdale isn’t on Ulster’s left so he has set up extremely wide initially, worried about Robbie Henshaw, Larmour, and Ryan Baird holding width there. 

In hindsight, McCloskey might feel he should have started further infield and tried to force Leinster into making additional passes but the reality is that he’s also worried about a cross-field kick from Byrne, who is always accurate in that area.

And having set up so wide, McCloskey can’t recover in to tackle Osborne

Osborne – who has worked hard to get infield after being close to the initial aerial contest – could have put the pacy Gibson-Park away for the score here after the scrum-half had worked up on an inside support line but Osborne opts not to pass.

Osborne does well to ride the tackle attempt of Moore, who will feel he had to ground the Leinster centre, and draw in McCloskey and send Henshaw over.

It’s a stinging seven-point punishment from Leinster after Ulster lose defensive organisation following the aerial contest.

Ulster boss Richie Murphy felt his team went away from the tactical plan of contestable kicking in the second quarter of the game, but they certainly refocused at half time.

With their first possession of the second half, Ulster go back to the sky.

It’s an outstanding kick from Cooney as he picks out the space in between Leinster’s two backfield defenders, Gibson-Park and O’Brien.

It means O’Brien has to retreat infield to get underneath the hanging kick.

Fielding players never want to be forced into this position of weakness. Coming forward onto the high ball is the ideal scenario.

Leinster will probably be disappointed that Ulster centre Will Addison gets through their retreating defensive line to get such a good challenge in.

Byrne and Osborne are unable to impede him in any notable way in the space above, so Addison gets through to take off and make contact with O’Brien.

The Leinster fullback attempts to catch overhead, giving himself the extra height with his arms outstretched, but it’s not a strong position and the ball goes forward again. Henshaw then scoops it up from an offside position.

Ulster opt to take their three points here in a clear win for their kick tactics.

But a frustrating day in the air continues for Stockdale from the restart as he knocks on in a contest with Gibson-Park from Cooney’s exiting box kick.

Leinster score their third try of the evening from the ensuing scrum, Lowe brilliantly controlling Byrne’s cross kick to finish in the left corner.

At 22-3 with 47 minutes played, this was arguably the game done as a contest and Ulster’s contestable kicking tactics didn’t feature again prominently as they chased the game.

That said, O’Brien surely enjoyed a clean take in the final quarter underneath Cooney’s box kick out of the Ulster half.

From this O’Brien take, Leinster give Ulster a taste of their own medicine as Byrne hangs up a contestable that Moore spills forward.

McCarthy gathers the scraps and a few phases later, Leinster score wide on the right through Larmour.

In a frantic period of play, Ulster then score almost immediately after as they strike from the scraps of a Leinster box kick but the contest is done at that stage.

The Bulls will have watched Ulster’s tactical approach with interest and Leinster will be readying themselves for another aerial bombardment this weekend at altitude in Pretoria. They’ll need to rise to the challenge.