Ferris is gouged during Ulster win

Ulster's 23-13 win over Stade Francais at Ravenhill was somewhat overshadowed by an eye-gouging incident involving Stephen Ferris.

The Ireland international felt he was the victim of an illegal attack by an unidentified Stade player late in the second half.
Ferris revealed afterwards he had had words with the player concerned.

"He said to me 'I did not do anything' and I said "we'll soon see,"' was the Ulster man's account of the incident.

Later, Ferris added: 'I was furious. When I was on the ground I felt numerous fingers in my eye. There was argy bargy throughout the game, and I don’t mind that, rugby is a physical game.

'I would hate to get anyone cited and if someone hit me a dig in the jaw I would take it and get on with the game, but not when someone goes for your eyes.

'At the start I thought it was Mauro Bergamasco but in speaking to a few people afterwards it is quite plain to see on the video. I will just let the citing commissioner sort it out.'

Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin preferred to focus on the result which brought the province level with their French opponents on nine points ahead of the return fixture in Brussels next weekend.

'It wasn't the perfect performance by any means but by goodness it was a great one,' McLaughlin said after his side moved a step closer to going beyond the pool stages for the first time since 1999.

'If you're going to play Stade here then you've got to hassle them and we did that very, very well. Whenever they had the ball we forced the error.

'We didn't collapse in the last 10 minutes and let them get a bonus point which I think could be crucial for us in the end.

'We've got to believe we're good enough to win in Brussels. We've given ourselves a great opportunity.

'It is important for us to play over there and not to contain. We've got to go and we've got to play with the same confidence that we played with today,' McLaughlin added.

Stade Francais flanker James Haskell accepted his team-mates had been played off the park by Ulster as Stade succumbed to their first defeat in this season's European campaign.

But the England international is determined to produce a much-improved effort next weekend when the side's meet again.

'It's not panic stations yet,' he said.

'But we can re-focus and go again. It doesn't matter where we play, we just have to turn up in Brussels and come out with all guns blazing.

'It wasn't a good performance at all for us, but we have the ability to turn things round.'

Nigel Brady and Simon Danielli scored the home side's tries, one in either half, with Ian Humphreys kicking 13 points.