Good Enough?

Picking over the reports of Ulster’s semi-final, the consensus seems to be that Edinburgh played the better rugby, made more chances, but profligacy let Ulster off the hook; Ulster on the other hand were relatively low-key, winning the physical contest but creating relatively little.

Having been at the game, I wanted to re-watch before drawing my own conclusions – while I think there is something to the bare bones of the description above, I was pleasantly surprised by the second viewing.

Firstly credit must go to Edinburgh, they certainly gave it a brave shot, arguably causing us more problems, with a more varied gameplan, than Munster. They had big performances from Laidlaw (notably the rip under the posts which will have Pedrie blushing furiously in the video session!), Ford, the second rows and Denton, and their defence was stern under a lot of pressure in the third quarter, when a seven-pointer for Ulster could have turned the match into a procession.

Secondly it’s true that Ulster seemed to play within themselves, with a low-risk approach involving a lot of kicking (albeit generally very fine kicking, mostly from Pienaar) and not much width. As Doak mentioned in an interview, Jackson had a comfortable game but perhaps tended to pass early, rather than taking the ball closer to the line – something he is clearly capable of, but I suppose in fairness you can’t criticise him too much for keeping it low-risk, making his first HEC start in a semi-final. In common with most of the team, his defence was very solid, with that channel locked pretty tight through the match.

The scrum was an important factor, with Declan Fitzpatrick putting in an eye-catching performance, and Adam Macklin continuing the good work, winning the final penalty which put the game beyond Edinburgh. And behind the scrum, in Pienaar, Ulster had the outstanding player on the pitch, and he produced a bravura performance – dead-eye goal-kicking, smashing decision-making and, in spite of being a player who strikes me as making his tackles without necessarily relishing them, I thought his defensive display was top-notch; he seemed to really want it.

So, in spite of Edinburgh’s greater inventiveness and higher share of possession, I think it’s an exaggeration to suggest that Ulster somehow had a let-off – in truth I can recall Ulster’s line being under threat once or twice throughout the match, with a combination of strong defence and handling errors under pressure generally keeping Edinburgh at bay. Of course, it’s not as simple as saying that Edinburgh missed x chances, and if they had scored they would have won – if Edinburgh had scored a try in the first half, I feel that Ulster would have been forced to react, and we clearly had a number of extra gears to go through.

As it happened, this wasn’t necessary – would it have been nice to see more fireworks from Ulster, more creativity and a more dominant display? Well yes of course, but the stronger and better side won fairly comfortably at the end, with Edinburgh’s late try putting a gloss on the scoreboard. Job done, next up the best club side in Europe, maybe the world!