Northampton thrive on Pountney scavenging

Northampton 32 Ulster 9

Raw, fractious, unrelenting: welcome to Pool 6 of the Heineken Cup, if not the tournament's Group of Death then certainly its Group of Not Feeling Terribly Well, Doctor. Until the last five minutes, it would have been easier to spot a winning Bangladeshi cricket team than a try-scoring opportunity, but Matthew Dawson and John Leslie, two former international captains, managed to take late advantage of some hare-brained Ulster defence to put a shine on the muck that had gone before. Welcome as their efforts were, they were not enough to save this one from the memory bank's erase button.

Not that this 30-man squabble in exceptionally awkward conditions was wholly without interest: it was just that the good things were buried beneath half a ton of forward flesh. Generally speaking, this is where Budge Pountney spends his working week. If there is an open-side flanker more at home in areas hidden from human sight, he is one of rugby's better-kept secrets. Pountney scavenged away to remarkable effect at Franklin's Gardens yesterday, outclassing the unfortunate Neil McMillan on the floor and repeatedly making a mess of what should have been prime Ulster possession.

The Northampton skipper was equally effective in areas of more marginal legality. His off-the-ball tackle on David Humphreys, very much the key figure for the visitors, may or may not have been an honest error, but it was certainly enough to put the goal-kicking outside-half off the field for good.

Having given Humphreys a one-way ticket to the physio suite, Pountney began to feature more in open field, and it was entirely appropriate that he should make the strong run that gave Dawson the chance to slip away from Robbie Kempson's weak tackle and kill the game stone dead with a 76th minute try under the posts.

Ulster were no pushovers in the bump and bore department – they seldom are – and now that their rough handful of a pack has some South African know-how in the shape of Kempson and Warren Brosnihan, they are difficult to subdue. But Northampton have some very decent southern hemisphere imports of their own, and if Andrew Blowers was slightly less commanding on this occasion than he had been against Wasps eight days previously, Mark Connors looked very much on his mettle. The newly-recruited Wallaby clocked Neil Doak with a handy right cross shortly before half-time and muscled in on everything going after the interval. Shy, he is not.

In many ways, though, this was an unsatisfying contest. Paul Grayson was not at his best with the boot, and saw four of his penalty shots slide wide of the sticks. Doak missed four as well, and Humphreys two. Doak suffered a rough afternoon in every respect: when Connors was not attempting to thump him back across the Irish Sea, Pountney was hounding him to distraction around the fringes. Perhaps Humphreys was better off out of it, after all.

Northampton were only 18-9 up deep in the final quarter, and were still vulnerable to a late Ulster surge, when Dawson wrapped up the points. His score was improved by Grayson, and when Bryn Cunningham's laboured clearance from the in-goal area was charged down by the consistently excellent Leslie, the former England outside-half was on hand once again to apply the finishing touches. It was rough justice on Cunningham, who had been the most threatening of the Ulster runners, but the Northampton forwards deserved no less for their labours.

It goes without saying that the Midlanders will have to improve by a good 50 per cent if they are to take anything from their visit to Biarritz this weekend: the French champions are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed following their victory in Cardiff on Saturday night, and are quite an act down there in Basque country. But Northampton will travel in hope, and so they should. In Blowers and Connors they have Super 12 veterans who know what it is to do the business in adversity; in Pountney, they have a flanker who moves heaven earth, and frequently burrows under the latter, to secure every last piece of possession. Of all the English sides in this competition, they have the right players in the right places. They will sell themselves short if they fail to make the knock-out stage.

Northampton: Tries Dawson, Leslie; Conversions Grayson 2; Penalties Grayson 6. Ulster: Penalties Humphreys 2, Doak.

Northampton: N Beal; O Ripol, M Tucker, J Leslie, B Cohen; P Grayson, M Dawson; T Smith (M Stewart, 54), S Thompson, R Morris, S Williams, M Connors, A Blowers, A Pountney (capt), M Soden (G Seely, 62).

Ulster: B Cunningham; J Topping, S Stewart, J Bell, T Howe; D Humphreys (capt, A Larkin, 52), N Doak; J Fitzpatrick (S Best, 60), M Sexton, R Kempson, M Blair, G Longwell, W Brosnihan, N McMillan, A McWhirter.

Referee: A Lombardi (Italy).