There have been a few memorable evenings at Ravenhill and latterly the Kingspan Stadium over the years in European Cup Rugby.
There was the Toulouse and Stade Francais victories in the ’99 winning season, not to mention the 33-0 drubbing of Leicester in 2004, a side with a healthy dose of World Cup winning players from the 2003 cup victory just a few months earlier.
Numerous victories over French giants Clermont Auvergne and Toulouse followed over the next decade as the Ulster home has become a fortress.
Now head coach Dan McFarland has hailed Saturday night’s 31-15 victory over French heavyweights Racing 92 as amongst the very best.
Ulster headed into the game on the back of three defeats, including last week’s Champions Cup opener with Bath.
In Racing, they were coming face-to-face with a behemoth of Gallic rugby, and one that sit proudly atop the Top 14.
”Definitely our best for a while,” said McFarland.
”Speaking to the senior players in the week and they had a feel that we were bubbling away, the opportunities that we created with the ball in the last two games, against Bath and Edinburgh, left us feeling we left a lot out there on the field but also confident that the foundations of what we are trying to put together are there.
European nights at home. That was huge!
— Ulster Rugby (@UlsterRugby) December 16, 2023
Thank you to our fans for their support tonight! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/P1O28kBMT3
”Just some of the details around making it work weren’t, but we made a strategic decision at the start of the year that we were going to move the ball a bit more.”
After a sluggish start to proceedings in the south-west of England last weekend, there was to be no repeat here.
Ulster preferring to keep the ball alive, while at the same time not being afraid to drive hard through the guts of the Racing defence.
Dave Ewers had his best Ulster game to date, with hard carries and also some thunderous tackles in the first period. Mercurial scrum-half Nolann Le Garrec had to collect his ribs from the floor after one early encounter with the ex-Exeter Chiefs man.
Two early tries came from some old-school trickery.
A touch-and-go from five-metre penalties led to mauls being set up and executed to perfection with Stuart McCloskey and Nick Timoney benefitting from scores.
The French side seemingly unable to stop the type of move which was more widely witnessed in the sport’s amateur days.
“We worked on it in the ‘lab’ during the week” McFarland said.
“Iain (Henderson) came up with the idea and we executed it after trialling it on Tuesday.”
Things were by no means perfect. The lineout is still a concern, and the re-introduction of Rob Herring could not solve last week’s issues.
However, having Ulster’s most-capped player back-in-toe seemed to give the pack a sense of security, evident in the dominant scrum.
Tom Stewart’s energetic arrival in the second-half illustrates the embarrassment of riches the Irish province have in this position.
The home side were heroic in defence at times, with Rob Baloucounne the surprising leader. The winger made a stretching tackle to peg back Maxime Baudonne when a try looked certain, and then managedto hold Racing up over the line minutes later.
Glamour signing Steven Kitshoff was also impressive in his 77-minute performance. It was easy to see why McFarland was as pleased with denying the Parisians a losing bonus point as gaining the one for themselves.
”We changed the shape that we were playing and it took a period of time but I thought in that first 40minutes it looked much more like what we were trying to achieve.
”The foundations are there but we’re certainly not the complete article.
”To deny them the bonus point was one of the most pleasing things we did.
Ulster still have a difficult path to qualification from Pool 2, with games against Toulouse and Harlequins to come in the new year, but for now it’s back to the lab and perhaps some more plays from yesteryear to enjoy against Connacht on Friday night.