Ulster ride on a wave of Irish uprising

The silence was extraordinary. For 78 minutes more than 10,000 Ulster supporters had deafened the locality, whipped to ever higher decibel levels by a PA announcer who was more cheerleader than information service.

They had roared on every attack, cheered every tackle and groaned at every error, including two penalty misses by David Humphreys in the first half. Now, the fly-half had an opportunity for a four-point lead, an almost certain victory and continued interest in the Heineken Cup, the tournament his head coach Alan Solomons has described as "equivalent to the Super 12".

A couple of paces, a strike and a wall of noise reverberated towards Belfast city centre. Biarritz, the French champions were defeated 13-9, a result that has benefited Northampton as much as Ulster and reinforced Solo-mons' belief that Irish rugby is improving rapidly.

"Undoubtedly they are in the second set of three countries with South Africa and Australia," he said. "When I came over as assistant coach to South Africa in 1997-98 I could see the improvements made in English rugby, big strides forward and I think that has happened now in Ireland and a lot of that is to do with the improved structure."

The improvements were in fact a hugely contentious upheaval, reducing the number of top-flight teams but concentrating the best into competition against and with each other. It is no surprise that Wales, or at least the new chief executive David Moffett and coach Steve Hansen are trying to force through something similar.

"They will get there and reap the benefits in time, just as we have here," believes Solomons, "but they must decide on four or five provinces or big clubs – it doesn't matter which – and contract the players centrally."

The crowd at Ravenhill certainly enjoy the new product. Even Celtic League matches have attracted between 8,000 and 10,000. "That has really impressed me," explained Solomons. "They have taken to the league, which considering it is so important to Celtic rugby is wonderful. That league is the lifeblood and has improved greatly from last season and will only get better.

"I see the Heineken Cup as the equivalent to the Super 12, but more interesting because they have the same teams every year whereas we have six countries and the teams can vary. That is the top of the club game but beneath that is the Celtic League or the English or French league and they compare to the NPC tournament in New Zealand. This structure is superb for raising standards and we are seeing that. Why else are France and England two of the best three nations in the world and Ireland improving?"

He feels the improvements would be greater if the tournaments were not fragmented. "It just makes sense to play the tournaments in blocks," he said. "We could play and finish the Celtic League and then have the Heineken. It would be good for marketing, clubs and supporters. Also four pools of six would mean the top two from each go through unlike now when maybe only one of us, Northampton and Biarritz do.

"Last year we didn't go through as a second place on fewer tries scored and this year we are in a group with Northampton and Biarritz. The games are great but take two from each group and play it in a segment and it would be even better."

That may yet happen with the Northampton coach, Wayne Smith, advocating similar if not exactly the same changes. And if they do occur, Ulster should be ready, as their youth side have retained the Provincial title.