Ulster 22

Sale Sharks 11

AFTER SIX DEFEATS in seven games and having trailed 11-8 to the Sale Sharks heading into the final quarter at Kingspan Stadium, Ulster were staring another costly home loss and an early European exit right in the face.

But unlike in previous weeks, where poor finishes have been their Achilles’ heel, on this occasion they dictated proceedings and pulled the result out of the fire thanks to a couple of late tries from Rob Herring and Duane Vermeulen and secure their last-16 berth in the dying stages.

You could argue they don’t deserve to be in the knockouts given their humbling at the hands of the Sharks in their opening pool game and the abject disaster that was their first half against La Rochelle a week later. But, largely thanks to the expanded format, Dan McFarland’s side have done enough to make it through and potentially turn their season around.

Perhaps with a point to prove after failing to make Andy Farrell’s Six Nations squad, Ulster were led by Nick Timoney and they had led at the break through a Rob Lyttle try and Nathan Doak’s penalty, but they quickly fell behind early in the second half through Ben Curry’s finely-taken score shortly after Doak was sin-binned.

However, the rest of the half belonged to McFarland’s side and they deservedly triumphed. Herring crossed from a line-out maul and Vermeulen wriggled over following a yellow card to Jono Ross and there would be no late drama unlike in previous weeks.

Provincial rivals Leinster, long their bogey team in play-off rugby, likely await in the last-16, but Ulster will simply be happy to be invited to the party given for long stretches there was no guarantee they wouldn’t be dropping into the Challenge Cup instead.

It looked like the latter option may prevail as early as the first five minutes when Sale got on the board early through the boot of Rob du Preez, who punished Sam Carter for not rolling away in a tackle, and it seemed like the visitors might have the run of the game.

But slowly Ulster started to gain a foothold and they were rewarded when they turned down a kick for goal and went for the corner instead, a crafty snipe from Doak leading to Bevan Rodd going off his feet trying to rescue the situation at the try line and, as a result, the England loosehead headed to the sin-bin for ten minutes.

And Ulster made it count. A fine run down the touchline by Jacob Stockdale set up the chance that also saw a clever offload from Timoney to Mike Lowry earn them more ground, before Billy Burns’ pass to the touchline sent Rob Lyttle over in the corner.

Du Preez put the visitors back ahead on the half-hour mark as he slotted another penalty with Ulster caught offside, but Jeffery Toomaga-Allen edged a scrum penalty right at the end of the first half to send Ulster in at the break two points to the good after Doak slotted it.

The scrum-half was binned shortly after the restart for blocking a pass off a maul illegally to set up Sale’s go-ahead try, a beautifully worked move from Ewan Ashman and Curry off a line-out seeing the former set up the latter to crash over in the corner.

Despite being down a man, however, Ulster controlled the majority of the third quarter and after being held up over the line twice in their bid to retake the lead, their ever-reliable maul proved to be the winning of the game.

It was a fine break from their own 10-metre line that set up the opportunity, John Cooney releasing Lowry and taking the full-back’s return pass to breach the 22 and, after a penalty against the Sharks sent the ball into touch at the five-metre line, Herring burst over from the back of the maul for the score.

Despite the lead, the atmosphere around Kingspan Stadium was still understandably tense, but the home fans were out of their seats when an illegal intervention on the floor from Ross saw the flanker binned with five minutes left and only a matter of seconds later, Vermeulen was in under the posts for the score that left no doubt where the four points were going.

With the roar of the crowd reverberating around the ground, Ulster are into the last-16 by the skin of their teeth. But, perhaps more importantly, they look to be back.

Scorers for Ulster:

• Tries: Lyttle, Herring, Vermeulen
• Cons: Cooney (2)
• Pen: Doak

Scorers for Sale:

• Try: Curry
• Pens: R du Preez (2)

ULSTER: Mike Lowry; Rob Lyttle, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Billy Burns, Nathan Doak (Jordi Murphy 56); Andrew Warwick (Eric O’Sullivan 54), Tom Stewart (Rob Herring 54), Jeffery Toomaga-Allen (Tom O’Toole 54); Alan O’Connor, Sam Carter (Kieran Treadwell 63); Harry Sheridan (John Cooney 52), Nick Timoney, Duane Vermeulen.

SALE SHARKS: Joe Carpenter; Tom O’Flaherty, Sam James (Tom Curtis 74), Manu Tuilagi, Arron Reed (Tom Roebuck 50); Rob du Preez, Gus Warr (Raffi Quirke 46); Bevan Rodd (Ross Harrison 59), Ewan Ashman (Tommy Taylor 59), James Harper (Joe Jones 59); Josh Beaumont (Sam Dugdale 64), Jonny Hill; Jono Ross, Ben Curry, Jean-Luc du Preez.

Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)