Ulster stage remarkable fightback
The Irish province kept alive their chances of progressing to the last eight in the Champions Cup with a sensational 24-23 triumph over Oyonnax.
It was a second successive victory on French soil for Rory Best's men, following on from their 25-23 win in Toulouse in round four.
It means they closed the gap at the top of Pool One to six points with two games left to play.
Oyonnax used the conditions to their advantage in the first 40 minutes and looked set to break their Champions Cup duck in Pool One, after three harrowing defeats.
Having won only once in their last eight games they were desperate for a victory.
And with two unanswered first-half tries they seemed to have set themselves on the right track to secure that historic first win in the tournament.
Hooker Jeremie Maurouard set the ball rolling with a seventh minute try from a driving line-out and the former Wales outside half Nicky Robinson added the conversion and then three successive penalties.
Ulster were under the cosh at the scrum and took 35 minutes to reach the home side's 22. Then they coughed up the ball 10 metres out and Fijian wing Uwa Tawalo picked up and outsprinted Ian Humphreys in an 80 metre sprint to the Ulster posts.
Robinson added the simple conversion to make it 23-0 at the break and it looked as though Ulster's European dreams were in tatters. Director of Rugby Les Kiss responded to the desperate situation by introducing the experience of Ruan Pienaar and Paddy Wallace at halfback and added the power of Nick Williams to the pack at the break.
It led to a completely transformed Ulster side and performance in the second half and from the moment Rory Scholes raced 30 metres to the line after an inside pass from the outstanding Stuart McCloskey the fight-back was on.
Wallace added the simple conversion and then two tries in the space of four minutes from Craig Gilroy and loose head prop Stuart McCall, both converted by Wallace, made it all to play for in the final 10 minutes. Ulster had their tails up and when replacement prop Horace Pungea conceded a penalty at a breakdown one metre inside the Ulster half there was a chance for Ulster to take the lead.
Wallace stepped up to aim for the posts and his kick ailed over to give the Irishmen the lead with three minutes left on the clock. Ulster had to defend for their lives in the closing few minutes and turned over an Oyonnax scrum on their 22 in the last play of the game to be certain of a victory that sets up a massive trip to Allianz Park to face Saracens in round five.
The scorers:
For Oyonnax:
Tries: Maurouard, Tawalo
Cons: Robinson 2
Pens: Robinson 3
For Ulster:
Tries: Scholes, Gilroy, McCall
Cons: Jackson 3
Pen: Jackson
Teams:
Oyonnax: 15 Quentin Etienne, 14 Dug Codjo, 13 Alaska Taufa, 12 Eamonn Sheridan, 11 Uwa Tawalo, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Julien Blanc, 8 Pedrie Wannenburg, 7 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 6 Pierrick Gunther, 5 Fabrice Metz, 4 George Robson, 3 Marc Clerc, 2 Jeremie Maurouard, 1 Laurent Delboulbès.
Replacements: 16 Thomas Bordes, 17 Stan Wright, 18 Horace Pungea, 19 Leon Power, 20 Viliami Ma’afu, 21 Arthur Aziza, 22 Rory Clegg, 23 Daniel Ikpefan.
Ulster: 15 Craig Gilroy, 14 Sammy Arnold, 13 Luke Marshall, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Rory Scholes, 10 Ian Humphreys, 9 Paul Marshall, 8 Roger Wilson, 7 Chris Henry, 6 Robbie Diack, 5 Franco van der Merwe, 4 Lewis Stevenson, 3 Ricky Lutton, 2 Rory Best (captain), 1 Kyle McCall.
Replacements: 16 Rob Herring, 17 Callum Black, 18 Bronson Ross, 19 Nick Williams, 20 Sean Reidy, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Paddy Jackson, 23 Louis Ludik.
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant referees: Paul Dix (England), Andrew Small (England)
TMO: Geoff Warren (England)
Source: @ChampionsCup
