The Heineken Cup game between Stade Français and Ulster at Stade Jean-Bouin on Sunday Dec 20 2009.
Among the 150 volunteers who helped clear the snow off the pitch at the Stade Jean-Bouin in Paris ahead of Stade Français’ pool defining victory over Ulster yesterday were Julien Dupuy and David Attoub.
The appearance of Dupuy, banned for six months for eye-gouging Ulster flanker Stephen Ferris, and Attoub, who is suspended until the resumption of his hearing in January for the same offence against the same player, did little to warm the hearts of an Ulster side who failed replicate the white heat of their victory at Ravenhill seven days earlier.
Ulster are still privately seething at allegations from Stade Français that a photograph appearing to show Attoub stick his finger into the eye of Ferris was doctored, and the French club’s demands for more forensic tests on the image are the reasons behind the adjourned hearing.
The upheaval caused by the postponement of the match on Saturday because of a frozen pitch at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, and the switching of the match back to Stade’s ground in Paris at the 11th hour did not help Ulster’s state of mind either.
Yet even though only 3,700 spectators turned up in Paris yesterday after original ticket sales of over 30,000 for the game in Brussels, it was Stade who had the last laugh.
Ulster have yet to win a pool match on French soil in this tournament and they never looked like threatening that bleak record as Stade put themselves into pole position for the automatic qualifying place by moving four points clear at the top of Pool Four as they easily avenged their reverse in Belfast.
Yesterday it was the Stade pack that dominated proceedings from start to finish, with both their tries, one in each half, coming from driving mauls from close-range line-outs. With Ulster unable to impose themselves, Stade fly-half Lionel Beauxis was able to exert a suffocating grip on the contest.
If his blemish-free 19-point haul, landing seven kicks at goal from seven, proved decisive, his overall influence and control ensured Ulster’s chances were restricted to an absolute minimum.
Trailing 19-9 at the interval after a try by Dimitri Szarzewski and four penalties by Beauxis, the visitors had one acid moment after Ian Humphreys kicked a penalty to the corner. An attacking scrum ensued but crucially the put-in was ball was lost and moments later so were any hopes of a revival.
Stade went up to the other end and Beauxis landed his fifth penalty to take his side 13 points clear before the killer blow came when Benjamin Kayser was driven over from a line-out take by former Wasps lock Tom Palmer.
Ulster rallied for a rousing finish with Humphreys, who had landed three first-half penalties, spotting a dog-legged defence and picking out Andrew Trimble with a long pass and the Ireland wing embarrassed Ollie Phillips by accepting the challenge to go on the outside and finishing with a blistering run from 40 metres out.
Yet by failing to claim a losing bonus point, Ulster’s ambitions now looked to be limited to battling for a place in the quarter-finals of the Amlin Challenge Cup as one of the high-point scoring pool runners-up.
Match details
Stade Français: H Southwell; J Arias, M Bastareaud, G Bousses, M Gasnier; L Beauxis, N Oelschig; R Roncero (capt), D Szarzewski, S Marconnet; T Palmer, P Pape; M Bergamasco, P Rabadan, J Leguizamon.
Tries: D Szarzewski, B Kayser Cons: L Beauxis (2).
Pens: L Beauxis (5).
Subs: B Kayser for Szarzewski (55), J Haskell for Bergamasco (55) M Bergamasco for Bousses (61), O Phillips for Gasnier (61) J Haskell for Bergamasco (62).
Ulster: C Schifcofske; T Nagusa, A Trimble, P Wallace, capt, S Danielli; I Humphreys, I Boss; T Court, N Brady, BJ Botha, D Tuohy, E O'Donoghue, S Ferris, W Faloon, C Henry.
Tries: A Trimble Cons: I Humphreys.
Pens: I Humphreys (3).
Subs: I Whitten for Nagusa (49), R Caldwell for Tuohy (61) A Kyriacou for Brady (65), B Young for Court (65), D Fitzpatrick for Botha (71), D Pollock for Faloon (73).
Referee: C White (England).
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