Ulster 31-10 Aironi | Heineken Cup Pool Four match report
Ulster kept their Heineken Cup hopes alive with a five-try win over Aironi, a result which puts Brian McLaughlin's side top of Pool Four at least until Clermont and Leicester do battle on Sunday. Tries from Stephen Ferris, Adam D'Arcy, Andrew Trimble, Paul Marshall and the 19-year-old Paddy Jackson saw Ulster to a 31-10 win.
The win sets them up well to repeat the dose when they visit Aironi for the second part of the double-header next Saturday, a game which Ulster again have to try to take maximum points from.
They showed their intent pretty much from the off on Friday night, spurning an early penalty chance to go for the corner.
It did not pay off nor indeed did it the next time they tried it after only 10 minutes. But just after the first quarter they made the breakthrough when a long pass from Ruan Pienaar saw his fellow South African Pedrie Wannenburg pop a pass to Ferris and, with some space out on the left, the Ireland flanker powered through one tackle and scored in the left corner. Ian Humphreys nailed a great conversion and Ulster were off, though Tito Tebaldi narrowed the home side's lead to 7-3 three minutes later with a penalty.
The Aironi scrum-half was then wide with a long-range attempt after Ferris was penalised at a tackle and Humphreys was also wide with a more straightforward attempt before the half-hour. Tebaldi should have put the Italians a point behind but missed a run-of-the-mill chance after 32 minutes.
The home side were also given a boost by the sin-binning of the full-back Giulio Toniolatti and, with seven men now in the Aironi scrum, Ulster shoved them backwards and won the put-in in the Italians' 22 late in the half. From there, after a couple of minutes of constant pressure, the full-back D'Arcy scored in the same corner as Ferris had and Ulster went in at the break leading 12-3.
They hit the ground running on the restart when a great wraparound from Pienaar with Rory Best allowed D'Arcy to put Trimble in some space though the Ireland winger had to work hard for his score. With the Aironi full-back Toniolatti coming back from the bin just after Trimble's score, Ulster had put on a useful 10 points in his absence.
Marshall, a replacement for Pienaar, made an instant impact, scoring from a quick tap for the bonus score Ulster had needed. Humphreys slotted the conversion and Ulster led 24-3. With seemingly mass substitutions breaking up the game's pattern, there was still more to come from Ulster as the substitute Jackson ran a nice loop and made the try line.
Humphreys kicked his third conversion for Ulster to lead 31-3. The replacement hooker Tommaso D'Apice's late score, converted by Naas Olivier, was little consolation for Aironi.