For 60 minutes on Saturday afternoon, Ulster’s 40-point Champions Cup humbling in Toulouse six days previously felt closer to a hundred years ago. They had blasted their way to a 19-14 lead against another French behemoth, with an undisciplined and ragged Bordeaux Begles decidedly second best at the Kingspan Stadium.
But with 60 minutes gone there are still 20 minutes left. In that time 19-14 became 19-40, with four Bordeaux tries – three in a blistering 10-minute spell - turning the match upside down and leaving Ulster head coach Richie Murphy with more bones to pick out of another European hiding.
Damian Penaud, Guido Petti and Louis Bielle-Biarrey all scored between the 61st and 71st minutes, with Ugo Boniface adding the final try at the death. Those scores followed one from Tevita Tatafu in the second minute and a first-half penalty try for the side sitting second in the French Top 14, to add to their 42-28 home win over Leicester in round one.
Ulster’ first half – a breakneck 40 minutes that saw five tries and four yellow cards – was their best of the season by a distance as Cormac Izuchukwu, Nick Timoney and Werner Kok all scored tries in a performance full of threat and purpose. Former sevens star and 15-a-side flanker Zak Ward looked like a born winger on his competitive Ulster debut as the home side punctured the Bordeaux defence regularly.
That pressure produced penalties and three cards – all yellow, although centre Yoram Moefana can count himself lucky it wasn’t red after his shoulder straight to the head of Timoney. Moefana would play a key role in the second half as Ulster ran out of steam and Bordeaux’s embarrassment of riches behind the scrum finally cut loose.
Their breakdown work fell the right side of referee Gianluca Gnecchi after the break as well as they constantly disrupted Ulster and eventually took control.
The first half was breathless, harum-scarum stuff.
Ulster’s botching of the Bordeaux kickoff gave the visitors an immediate platform and after Iain Henderson was penalised at the subsequent lineout maul his former Ireland team-mate Carbery kicked to the corner to give another lineout, five metres out. A nifty decoy move from the set-piece saw Tatafu rumble over with barely two minutes on the clock.
Carbery’s conversion had Ulster seven behind before they had enjoyed one second of possession.
But Murphy’s side didn’t panic and after Ward just ran out of space near the corner McCloskey mopped up a terrible Romain Latterrade throw fired straight over the lineout. Izuchukwu forced his way over a few phases later. Nathan Doak converted to level the scores.
McCloskey, centre partner Jude Postlethwaite and Izuchukwu were all making huge ground and another ruck infringement from Marko Gazzotti earned him a yellow card as Ulster again threatened the line. They got their reward when Timoney pirouetted away from the ruck and Doak added the conversion for a 14-7 lead in the 19th minute.
The yellow card/try script was flipped less than 10 minutes later Bordeaux scrum-half Maxime Lucu broke away from a driving maul but lost the ball forward before touching down. But Dave McCann had already been pinged for collapsing the maul and Bordeaux emerged with a penalty try and a yellow card for the Ulster number eight.
Again, Ulster didn’t let it bother them. A McCloskey grubber kick turned around Bordeaux and more home pressure in the Bordeaux 22 saw another card for the visitors at the ruck, this time for prop Jefferson Poirot. Before Ulster could restart with a tap the TMO sent referee Gnecchi to the big screen where he saw Moefana deliver a shoulder straight to Timoney’s head. Gazzotti’s tackle on the Ulster back-row provided the mitigation but Moefana could still count himself extremely lucky to see yellow rather than red.
McCann returned to give Ulster a 15-13 personnel advantage for the last two-and-a-half minutes of the half and after a high tackle halted another probing Ward run, Ulster showed patience to turn a lineout on the 22 into a three-on-one overlap and score for Kok. Doak missed the conversion and Ulster led 19-14 at the break.
An Aidan Morgan fumble and subsequent scrum penalty stunted early Ulster momentum in the second half but a Timoney-won penalty at the ruck relieved the pressure for Ulster in their own 22.
Ten minutes of sustained Bordeaux possession came to nothing and Ulster continued to look the more dangerous team with ball in hand. But on 61 minutes the French side finally put some cohesive backline play together, stretching Ulster across the pitch and back before Penaud dotted down in the corner. Carbery added the extras to give Bordeaux a 21-19 lead.
A clumsy penalty at the restart for taking out a Bordeaux man in the air prevented Ulster responding as they had previously to score concessions and instead they found themselves defending in their own 22 again.
They survived initially but couldn’t hold out when a behind-the-back offload from Penaud put in Petti for Bordeuax’s bonus-point try in the 69th minute. Replacement Mateo Garcia converted for a 28-19 lead. Hope flickered briefly for Ulster with possession in the Bordeaux 22 but a loose breakdown saw the ball turned over. Moefana broke clear again and, after transfers to Nicolas Depoortere and Garcia, Bielle-Biarrey collected to race over. Game over. Garcia converted; twenty-one points in the space of 10 minutes and Ulster’s five-point lead had become a 16-point deficit. And there was still time for Ugo Boniface to add another try, Garcia missed the conversion and the final score stayed 40-19.
So, no points in the second half and, after three before the break, no fourth try or bonus point either for the home side and more than a century of points conceded in the two matches.
Far more bright spots than Toulouse for Ulster, but more harsh lessons too.
