Ulster felt the full force of a Clermont Auvergne backlash this afternoon at Stade Marcel Michelin as the runaway pool leaders exacted revenge for last weekend’s defeat in Belfast with a blistering five-try 38-19 victory.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: CLERMONT AUVERGNE 38 ULSTER 19
Les Kiss’ side had already conceded four tries without response before a shift up the gears brought three scores in quick succession – two from the in-form Tommy Bowe and one from Franco van der Merwe – but, crucially, neither a losing or try-scoring bonus point as Clermont closed out the match with a penalty try.
At the end of round 4 of the European Champions Cup, Ulster now sit third in the pool on nine points, just behind Bordeaux-Begles thanks to an inferior scoring difference.
Only one change to the side that defeated Clermont last Saturday saw van der Merwe return to the second row in place of the injured Robbie Diack. Charles Piutau, the scorer of a memorable try last weekend, started again at full-back, with Bowe and Louis Ludik on the wings and Luke Marshall partnering Stuart McCloskey in the centre.
Paddy Jackson and Ruan Pienaar continued in the half-back slots while, up front, the unchanged front row of Kyle McCall, Rory Best and Wiehahn Herbst packed down in front of van der Merwe and Peter Browne, with Iain Henderson, Chris Henry and Sean Reidy in the back row.
Clermont, meanwhile, made wholesale personnel changes with no fewer than five new faces coming into the starting line-up – full-back Isaia Toeava, winger Noa Nakaitaci, prop Etienne Falgoux, lock Arthur Iturria and flanker Viktor Kolelishvili all getting the nod.
The match started in the same explosive fashion as it had last Saturday in Belfast. Former All Black Toeava made his presence felt within 60 seconds, ripping through a shell-shocked Ulster midfield and ghosting past a wrong-footed Bowe for the try beneath the posts, converted by Morgan Parra.
Ulster responded well with pressure deep in the French half, four minutes’ worth of possession only going wrong with a misplaced pass from Marshall which Ludik, arriving at pace, was unable to take without knocking on.
Then an Alexandre Lapandry turnover on halfway just before the end of the first quarter saw Clermont expose a gap on the Ulster right flank with McCall down on the turf receiving treatment, English winger Nick Abendanon ducking into the corner to grab his second score in as many games.
His third followed within five minutes, as he picked off Camille Lopez’s pinpoint cross-field kick unchallenged for an easy run to the line, before Parra added his third conversion for a 21-0 scoreline.
A long range penalty from the scrum half could have topped up the Clermont tally to 24 points on the half hour, but his kick spun just wide for the solitary blot on an otherwise flawless first half from the French giants. Ulster, to their credit, closed out the period chipping away at the Clermont 10-metre line, grinding out a lineout from which Browne did well to heave his way to the line before being held up.
The second half could not have started any worse for the province, as Lopez timed his interception of Pienaar’s pass from ta lineout to perfection, and ran three-quarters of the pitch just out of the reach of the chasing Pienaar and Best for the killer bonus point try.
The entry of Rodney Ah You, Kieran Treadwell and Darren Cave for Herbst, Browne and Marshall on 50 minutes went some way to reinvigorating Ulster, whose best attack of the game thus far saw Reidy just held up by Abendanon and Iturria as he slid towards the corner flag from a kick through.
The Ireland-capped number 8’s tail was up, however, and he pinched the ball at the very next Clermont scrum, feeding Pienaar whose looping pass fell to Bowe for the try in the corner, topped up by Jackson’s conversion.
Ulster came again on the hour mark, pushing on from a rolling maul as Rob Herring replaced Best, van der Merwe eventually grounding the ball amid a mass of bodies, and Jackson again adding the extras for 28-14.
Better still came five minutes later, McCloskey taking route one to the line with four ‘Auvergnats’ swept aside in his wake before the recently-introduced Paul Marshall found Bowe at close range for the winger’s second try of the afternoon.
Jackson’s conversion attempt veered just wide to leave his side still nine points adrift, soon bumped back up to 12 courtesy of a Lopez penalty.
With at least a try-scoring bonus point now a realistic target for the Ulstermen, a fantastic central run from Ludik gained valuable ground in the first instance, but Clermont put up a hefty resistance and eventually cleared their lines. They even notching a final score by way of a penalty try after Jackson had been binned for a deliberate knock-on as the last man as the hosts closed in down the right wing.
Giving his post-match reaction, Ulster captain Best admitted: “The damage was done in the first half, we knew we had to come here and start well and keep the ball for long periods of time and frustrate them. We’re massively disappointed to come away with nothing.
“We expected to win, we prepared well and we knew if we did the things we talked about all week, we had a good chance. But we didn’t do that at the start and it’s cost us a losing bonus point which would have put ourselves in a great position (to get through).
“We conceded turnovers and weren’t good enough at the breakdown, we knocked on and gave silly penalties away and when you give a top side like this access into the game, they are going to score tries.
“We’ll have a look at this, we go back into the PRO12 next week but we will be looking to finish strong (in the pool). It’s out of our hands a little bit but if we finish strong we will have a good chance of qualifying. But we’re disappointed with the first 45 minutes of that game.”
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