Ulster’s European Hopes End With Dramatic Home Defeat

Ulster exited the Heineken Champions Cup in gut-wrenching fashion, losing by a single point on aggregate after a dramatic 30-23 defeat to reigning champions Toulouse at Kingspan Stadium.

Ulster came into the round of 16 second leg in front (26-20) and led for much of tonight’s tussle in Belfast thanks to Ethan McIlroy’s terrific try double, with John Cooney’s 13 points from the tee putting them within reach of the last-eight.

However, tries from Thomas Ramos and Romain Ntamack, with an intercept, kept Toulouse in touch before Ulster prop Tom O’Toole was sent off for a high tackle on Anthony Jelonch.

France star Antoine Dupont duly struck for a crucial 74th-minute try, Ramos adding the conversion to take his tally to 20 points and set up quarter-final clash with Munster at the Aviva Stadium.

Ugo Mola’s men had an early opportunity with two minutes on the clock and reliable full-back Ramos obliged with the penalty for a 3-0 lead.

In an eventful first few minutes, both Ulster and Toulouse went down to 14 men temporarily after Robert Baloucoune collided in the air with Jelonch, and three minutes later, Dimitri Delibes also saw yellow for a tip tackle on McIlroy.

Billy Burns kicked for touch with the latter penalty, bringing Ulster into a promising position. They looked like they might get through but the pass to Marcus Rea did not take, just a couple of metres out.

It was not long, however, until Ulster were on the attack again. They sent the ball wide and the goose-stepping James Hume made the offload to winger McIlroy who ran home for the try which Cooney for a 7-3 lead on the night.

The teams then exchanged penalties through the boots of Ramos and Cooney, maintaining the four-point gap between the two sides – 10 on aggregate.

Toulouse produced a superb try on 21 minutes, with Ntamack and Dupont working in tandem to send Ramos racing clear to take the lead, and he converted his score.

The hosts were keen to respond and had got to a great area of the field, going through the hands, but Ntamack sniffed out the intercept from deep to dart clear and suddenly give the French giants the lead on aggregate. Ramos nudged over the conversion.

Nonetheless, the men in red created an outstanding try just before the break. With a free play, Burns delivered a pinpoint cross-field kick out to a leaping McIlroy who made the one-handed catch and neat landing look almost effortless.

The vocal home crowd roared with delight and did so again after Cooney nailed the difficult touchline conversion for Dan McFarland’s charges to retake the aggregate lead at 43-40 – trailing 20-17 on the night.

The opening few minutes of the second half saw Ulster quickly out of the blocks, retaining possession well and testing Toulouse’s defence. Both teams looked to send the ball skywards, but both back-lines diffused it well.

Eventually, Ulster had a pop at the posts in the 52nd minute which Cooney fired over to draw the province level on the night, with a 46-40 aggregate advantage.

Nine minutes later, the surefooted Ramos replied with a penalty to put the Top 14 club back in front. Crucially, Ulster had to play the final quarter of an hour with 14 men as O’Toole was sent off for a high challenge on Jelonch.

The hosts were not deterred, and they worked their way back to a decent position. Toulouse were penalised for collapsing Ulster’s maul, and Cooney coolly slotted the three points to draw the second leg level, making it 49-43 on aggregate.

Up stepped the diminutive Dupont to break Ulster hearts with just over five minutes to go. He spotted a gap to crash over for a try and Ramos landed the conversion to give Toulouse a one-point lead on aggregate.

14-man Ulster had to fiercely defend to keep Toulouse out late on, and they were unable to get back downfield. Mola’s side quickly kicked the ball out to end the game and seal a nail-biting passage through to the quarter-finals.

Giving his reaction afterwards, Ulster head coach McFarland said: “The game was there for us to win, we won over there last week. We should have won by 13 points last week.

“Here we’re in the game competing with them and the game was decided because we did a few critical things that were wrong.

“Teams do that obviously but if you want to win at this level against sides of the quality of Toulouse, you can’t afford to make those mistakes. It happens but on the day today we didn’t quite get it right.”

Asked about the incident which saw tighthead O’Toole dismissed with little over a quarter of an hour remaining, McFarland said it was ‘a critical one’ in determining the outcome of this riveting two-legged encounter.

“Their try at the end probably came off the back of having that extra man and being so potent when the game is stretched,” he admitted.

“But I also look at their two tries, we gifted them two tries through poor pieces of defence, letting guys through on inside shoulders and an intercept pass in the space of five minutes.

“Ultimately that was a big difference in the game. I think there was another critical call on James Hume off his feet at the breakdown which for me was just not a penalty at all. That was a pretty critical moment.

“Outside of that, the red card and those two tries were the difference between the two teams.”