Ulster captain Rory Best hailed his side’s character in coming back from a rocky start to take a 26-10 victory over Leinster in their Guinness Pro12 inter-provincial derby.
10-0 down after seven minutes, Ulster held Leinster scoreless thereafter, and secured a win that gives their quest for a home semi-final a major boost.
With Leinster having played in a gruelling, extra-time Champions Cup semi-final only five days before the match, the effort in that game was always likely to affect their performance.
However, speaking to RTÉ Sport after the game, Best said Ulster had not been concerned with waiting for Leinster to flag and that the home side had concentrated on ensuring they grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck.
“We were very professional in the way we went about it,” Best said. “We know Leinster are a quality side; we’ve been on the wrong side of the results too many times with them.
“For us, it was about making sure we went out and we took the win. You know, we didn’t just wait for Leinster to make mistakes to give us the win, because a team like that just aren’t going to do it.
“And at 13-10 at half-time we talked at half-time about just making sure we took the next step and kept the pressure on them.”
“We turned the screw a little bit" - Rory Best
The win put Ulster top of the table overnight (though second-placed Glasgow and third-placed Munster could overtake the when they play on Saturday), and improves their chances of taking a home semi-final.
Best spoke about how tight it was at the top of the table, and how the Pro12 was more competitive than ever.
“It’s unbelievable," he said. "It shows the quality of this league that a team like Leinster are in fifth.
“And then you look at the teams above them. There’s a lot of quality, there’s a lot of strength in this league.
“And now, with the top six getting European rugby, it’s made, I suppose the so-called ‘dead rubber’s in the past – there are no dead rubbers now.”
Reflecting on the game, he rued Ulster’s nervous start, which allowed Leinster a strong foothold, but hailed his side’s ability to fight back.
“We knew they would come out, coming off the back of a really tough game last week – and some of playing 100 minutes – it was going to be tough for them, but we knew that they would try to blow us away at the start, and rely on their very strong bench to finish it off.
“We sort of gifted them that. There was a wee bit of nerves from our behalf; we sort of made a few silly mistakes.
“But I think it’s sort of credit to the character that we’re building here that we got ourselves back together, and we took the back game to them. We didn’t sit and feel sorry for ourselves.”
In the second half Ulster looked more composed, and the game was over as a contest long before the 80 minutes were up.
“Our half-backs, I thought, controlled the game very well [in the second half],” Best said.
“We were able to keep hold of the ball; we were able to keep possession. Leinster, you know, are a quality side. You don’t want to give them too much possession or territory, because you’re going to be struggling, as we found in the first ten minutes.
“With some really good tactical kicking from our nine and ten, and some of our outside backs as well; the way our back three controlled the back field, we were just really professional in the way we went about it.
“We turned the screw a little bit, and we made them try to play from their own half, and put a bit of pressure on them. It was nice to be on that side.”
