Ulster face nervous wait after ending second-half hoodoo

Given Ulster's recent trend of fading late in games, what slim hopes they had of playing knockout rugby at Europe's top table appeared to be dissipating at half-time against Exeter Chiefs.

Needing a big bonus-point win to keep themselves in with a shot of reaching the Investec Champions Cup last 16, there was palpable frustration inside Kingspan Stadium as the first half ended 17-17.

Ulster may have bagged three first-half tries, but the manner in which they had been opened up by the Chiefs during a helter-skelter opening 40 minutes left little confidence that the resounding win they required was forthcoming.

Then the second half happened.

Second-half shut-outs have been alarmingly prominent for Ulster in Europe this season.

At home to Bordeaux last month, they conceded 26 points without reply having led 19-14 at the break. In Leicester, they built a 10-0 lead but shipped 38 unanswered points.

They failed to score a point in either of those second halves, but with their Champions Cup campaign on the line against Exeter, they delivered when it really mattered, running in five tries in a soaring display of defiance to remain in the conversation.

Context is important, of course. While Ulster have endured their fair share of woes this season, Exeter have had an even rougher time of it.

Rob Baxter's side arrived in Belfast on the back of a 69-17 shellacking at the hands of Bordeaux, a 12th loss in 13 games across the Premiership and Champions Cup this season.

It was a much-changed side, too, with only three players retained and shorn of frontline stars such as Henry Slade or Dafydd Jenkins among others.

With that, an enterprising first-half performance perhaps caught Ulster on the hop, no more so than when Ross Vintcent left Stewart Moore and Rob Lyttle in his wake on his way to scoring a sensational solo try.

There was to be no great collapse for Ulster this time, though.

Within 10 minutes of the restart, returning hooker Rob Herring had sealed the bonus-point score and from there the floodgates opened as Cormac Izuchukwu scored his second and third tries either side of Ben Carson's wonderful individual effort and Dave McCann's second.

Ulster played some lovely stuff, too. Jude Postlethwaite's delightful offload sent Michael Lowry away in the build-up to Carson's try while Izuchukwu's second came at the end of one of the best passages of play Richie Murphy's side have mustered all season.

"They've done a really good job tonight," Murphy said of his team.

"There's loads of things we'll want to look back at and fix and get better at. But ultimately, the guys played for each other and the fans were brilliant, getting right in behind them."

It leaves Ulster with a nervous wait.

On Sunday, they need Bordeaux to beat the Sharks by 29 points to have any chance of progressing, and given the French side's firepower - they have scored 151 points in three games so far - that is a distinct possibility.

However, Ulster will at least have the Challenge Cup to fall into and Murphy was keen to underline the importance of having knockout European rugby on the horizon for a squad he is still shaping in his first full season at the helm.

"It's important that we win rugby matches and over the last while we probably haven't won enough," he admitted.

"We'll enjoy this one tonight and go after a few more over the next couple of weeks."

Murphy namechecked several of his players when running through the positives of Friday's game, but with the Six Nations just two weeks away, Ireland interim head coach Simon Easterby will have been buoyed by Izuchukwu's performance.

The past few months have been huge for Izuchukwu's development. He made his Test debut in November, has established himself as a stalwart for Ulster at the age of 24 and has put together a portfolio that suggests he could have a big impact in the green shirt in the years ahead.

"Izzy's been brilliant," said Murphy.

"Everyone talks about him roaming around the outside channels and carrying ball but there's much more to him than that.

"His line-out work in the past number of weeks has become really big. Teams don't want to throw anywhere near him and he's spooking line-outs, which is fantastic.

"He's working really hard, learning all the time and playing with a smile on his face which is great."

Speaking of smiles, there were a few of them at full-time on Friday night. Come Sunday, of course, the nerves will take over as Ulster's European fate is decided in the south of France.

But after such a tortured pool campaign, even bringing it down to the wire is a major achievement.