Share
17th May 2020
10:28am BST
Leinster raced into a 10-0 lead after 20 minutes and although Ulster got a bigger allocation of 'home fan' tickets, the Blues faithful did a good job of snapping up the neutral seats. It was anything but a home tie for the Ulster men.
Still, Trimble and his House of Rugby co-host Barry Murphy recalled how Ulster back-row Robbie Diack let a great try chance going a-begging in the first half while several of his teammates were guilty of conceding some poor penalties. Trimble commented:
"That was hard to watch. I was getting so ratty, watching that game back. So, we always had this thing in our head - when John Lacey refs us, we don’t win. We can’t win when Lacey is in charge. "And that’s what I’ve always had in my head. And Pienaar especially - Lacey walks into the dressing room and Pienaar goes, ‘We can’t win’! But, watching the game back, we were so stupid. Some stupid penalties."Murphy agreed that Ulster's discipline left a lot to be regarded and noted a crucial Chris Henry involvement that led to a kick to touch that Leinster took full advantage of. MURPHY: I’m sorry Chris, to throw you under the bus, but the penalty on 60 minutes was a big moment. That was when Jamie Heaslip got his try [to make it 24-15] after they kicked to the corner. TRIMBLE: Was that the one with his foot? When he kicked it out of the back of the ruck? I remember Chris telling me at one stage that he felt he could trick referees by grabbing the opposition by the arm and patting the ball back with their own hand. MURPHY: There’s the talk of a typical Number 7! TRIMBLE: He didn’t get away with it that time. And there were loads of other… Johann gave away stupid penalties. Robbie, Chris… With the benefit of hindsight, Trimble feels Lacey was well within his rights to award a lot of the penalties against both sides over the 80 minutes. "John Lacey gave loads of penalties for tackler not releasing," he said, "and it must have been - again, I don’t know what year that law was brought in - but it must have been close enough. Because we hadn’t a clue. And, to be fair, a couple of Leinster penalties as well. It’s just that we didn’t understand the rule." Pienaar nailed a penalty on the right-hand side of the pitch, just a few metres inside the Leinster half, to make it 24-18 but Ulster could not find a try in the final 12 minutes as Leinster held on to give Schmidt a winning send-off.
"Just to clear one thing up," Trimble stated, "we were wrong about Lacey 100% that day. When I watched it back, literally every single decision he nailed. And we were just complaining and bitching and moaning, and we were so stupid. So just to completely vindicate Lacey, he was spot on and he was brilliant that day, to be fair."Looking back at that Ulster squad they had between 2011 and 2015, it is astonishing how they did not pick up some silverware along the way. WATCH THAT HOUSE OF RUGBY EPISODE HERE:
Explore more on these topics:
