For quite a while this inter-provincial couldn’t shake off what seemed an inevitable narrative; two teams coming back to action after a month off, with all the ring-rust you could imagine that might have been accumulated from this showing up in spades.
It was nip and tuck for so long, both sides making errors and failing to get clear of each other but, in the end, Leinster muscled through to take the result, and a bonus point, back to Dublin, though Leo Cullen will hardly be hugely uplifted by what he saw.
Mind you, neither will Richie Murphy, who took a losing bonus point after James Culhane’s late try gave Leinster just enough daylight to see it through.
While the IRFU are marking their 150th anniversary this weekend through the game with Australia, Ulster were also using this inter-pro to mark their own milestone, the centenary year of their first ever game at Ravenhill which just so happened to be against Leinster.
Regardless of the history, Murphy’s squad really needed to upset the odds and topple their southern visitors, who arrived in Belfast as League leaders with six wins from six.
As things turned out, they fell short but will be frustrated at not being more clinical when on top as they racked up two defeats from two and, in all, four losses from seven.
Ulster got off to the ideal start with a well-worked try from Ben Carson after just four minutes when a ball moved wide found its way to Werner Kok and James McNabney, the latter putting Carson away and the centre galloped down the touchline to dot down in the corner.
Nathan Doak added a superb conversion and Ulster were up and running just the way they would have wanted against the URC’s pacesetters.
But an error from the restart gave Leinster a great platform to attack from and, on penalty advantage, Luke McGrath skated through at the posts giving Ross Byrne a straightforward conversion to tie things up after just nine minutes.
Shortly after play resumed, a collision by Brian Deeny which seemed to connect on Aidan Morgan’s head resulted in an 11th minute yellow card for the Leinster lock – which seemed fortunate for the visitors as it might have been red – and Doak nailed the three points from the tee.
Even though Morgan stayed on the field, Kok made way after what appeared to be another heavy collision from the same segment of play.
Again, Leinster came back and off another creaking Ulster scrum Ross Byrne did the needful to tie things up again at 10-10.
Two minutes later Ulster were back in the red zone after a sharp break from Doak but, when Leinster strayed offside under their sticks, the hosts opted for the corner with what was a regulation kick and coughed up a penalty when James McCormick’s driving wedge was deemed to be illegal just as the hooker thought he was about to score Ulster’s second try of the evening.
It meant that during Deeny’s sin-binning the scores ended up tied at 3-3 apiece, Ulster having failed to make the progress they would have expected from the visitors being reduced to 14.
Then, just before the 30-minute mark, Ulster won a penalty near the posts following a series of pick and goes, this time Doak called for the tee and put the ball between the sticks to again put the home side in the lead.
Leinster, having lost Will Connors before 30 minutes had gone, Scott Penny coming on from their 6-2 bench split, then saw Max Deegan also depart early – though he did return in the second half – with James Culhane entering the action with four minutes of the opening half remaining.
Ulster had to then do their own re-shuffling as Ben Moxham limped off, John Cooney being brought on to cover the wing.
The half ended scrappily for both sides, Doak opting to kick the ball out with no further scoring and Ulster leading 13-10.
Leinster began the new half with an urgency which had been lacking towards the back end of the first 40 minutes and had a penalty three minutes in after a good surge from Andrew Osborne down the left.
Ulster having already infringed; the penalty was brought back into midfield but a high coming together between Scott Penny and Nick Timoney resulted in the home player being binned.
Leinster went for the corner and moved the ball right only to be pinged for infringing on the Ulster line and this prompted the arrival of RG Snyman, which coincided with a brief downpour to add further difficulty to an already messy enough encounter.
Leinster now had to make the extra man count and did so on 49 minutes when good work from Jimmy O’Brien nearly put Osborne in only for the ball to recycled and then moved right where Jordan Larmour dived over.
Ross Byrne again kicked the two points.
With Timoney back, Ulster struck after Jimmy O’Brien put a ball out on the full. Camped in Leinster’s 22, Carson surged through for his second with Doak’s conversion of the 55th minute effort putting Ulster 20-17 ahead.
The pattern continued as four minutes later Leinster had the lead. This time a penalty was put to the corner and, after a strong drive from Lee Barron, the ball was spun at pace, Larmour delivering for Jimmy O’Brien in the corner.
Ross Byrne was just wide with the conversion and Leinster led by just two points.
The edginess continued with Ulster needing to get up the field but then having to bring on Marcus Rea for a limping Cooney – forcing Timoney to take up position on the wing – just as James Culhane drove over from a lineout to claim the bonus point score for Leinster.
Ross Byrne missed from a difficult angle to stretch the visitors’ lead.
It was back to Ulster then and they responded with a penalty and excellent kick from James Humphreys, only for the men in blue to nick the lineout and clear, ultimately seeing out the clock too.
Ulster: S Moore; W Kok, B Carson, J Postlethwaite, M Lowry; A Morgan, N Doak; E O’Sullivan, J McCormick, S Wilson; A O’Connor (capt), K Treadwell; J McNabney, N Timoney, D McCann
Replacements: T Stewart for McCormick 53mins, A Warwick for O’Sullivan 53mins, C Barrett for Wilson 53mins, H Sheridan for Treadwell 67mins, Marcus Rea for Cooney 71mins, J Cooney for Moxham 37mins, J Humphreys for Morgan 65mins, B Moxham for Kok 12mins.
Yellow cards: Timoney 43
Leinster: J O’Brien; J Larmour, L Turner, C Tector, A Osborne; R Byrne, L McGrath; J Boyle, J McKee, R Slimani; D Mangan, B Deeny; M Deegan, W Connors, J Conan (capt)
Replacements: L Barron for McKee 45mins, M Milne for Boyle 14-25mins and 66mins, R McGuire for Slimani 71mins, RG Snyman for Deeny 45mins, J Culhane for Deegan 36mins and for Mangan 69mins, F Gunne for McGrath 58mins, H Byrne for Osborne 71mins, S Penny for Connors 25mins, Deegan for Culhane h-t.
Yellow cards: Deeny 11mins
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Leinster will hope Will Connors’ injury isn’t too serious. Meanwhile, Ulster and Richie Murphy will gave similar thoughts for substitutes Ben Moxham and John Cooney who departed with knocks.
Leinster extend their lead at the top, moving to 34 points with a sixth bonus-point win out of seven. Ulster, meanwhile, are in seventh on 17 points.
Jimmy O’Brien has been awarded with the Man of the Match accolade.
Its a beautiful lineout move from Leinster as Jack Conan gathers and picks out James Culhane who is bolstered by the pack as he steamrolls over the try-line.
Some monstrous hits have been in the last few phases, notably a thumping tackle from Stewart Moore on Andrew Osborne.
Leinster set the maul before Jack Conan peels off the back and crashes it up. Luke McGrath spots Ross Byrne in the back pocket who creates the overlap with a quick ball inside to Jordan Larmour who releases it to Jimmy O’Brien.
Nick Timoney carries hard up the middle. James McNabney is up next and a superb pirouette out of the tackles frees the big back-row’s arms to feed Ben Carson who crashes over.