Northampton showed the value of having hard-bitten forwards in the latter stages of the Heineken Cup, if not quite in the way the Ulster No8, Pedrie Wannenburg, appeared to sink his gumshield into the forearm of the Saints' captain, Dylan Hartley, when the game had slipped from the Irish side's grasping hands.
"Slipped" was the appropriate word, because after Northampton had taken a 20-13 lead on 56 minutes, with a counter-attacking try that saw Ben Foden and Chris Ashton inter-pass from just outside their own 22 and Lee Dickson apply the finish, the Ulster full-back, Adam D'Arcy, had a chance for immediate reparation. His kick had given the Saints the chance to take that run from deep but after Ruan Pienaar had taken a quick penalty close to the Saints line, D'Arcy had only to catch a pass from Paddy Wallace to give Simon Danielli an unopposed run to the line. He dropped the ball and his side's prospects went with it.
Ulster were more slick in the backs than Northampton but, despite having four South Africans in their pack, they were worn down by the sustained ferocity and power of the Saints eight. Those qualities were personified by the second-row Courtney Lawes, who spent the afternoon mixing dexterity and athleticism with strength-sapping hits.
Northampton were winded a few weeks ago, having lost six consecutive Premiership matches, but the return of four England players and the renewed fitness of Lawes and the scrum-half Dickson have given them puff. There was nothing subtle about them – they were confident that Ulster would crack if they were drawn into a battle of attrition – but they were handed a third-minute try after Andrew Trimble flapped at an overweighted kick that was bouncing erratically in his own 22, knocked the ball on and conceded a scrum. That provided the foundation for a series of drives that ended with the prop Soane Tonga'uiha exploiting an absence of sentries at the fringe of a ruck.
Mistakes became Ulster's speciality. Trimble's knock-on inside Northampton's half two minutes from the break allowed Saints to go into the break 13-10 down rather than six points behind, after BJ Botha was penalised for collapsing a scrum. Trimble had scored his side's try, Ian Humphreys freeing Danielli with an inside pass before Rory Best's neat feed to the scorer, but as the heat of the afternoon told, along with the unceasing pressure exerted by the Northampton forwards, Ulster's set pieces disintegrated. The penalty count against them rose, the influence of their predatory back row waned and desperation, flavoured with frustration, crept into their game.
D'Arcy had just wasted his opportunity to draw level when Wannenburg appeared to chomp on Hartley's arm, after the hooker tried to pull him out of a ruck. The Northampton captain complained to the French referee, Romain Poite, that he had been bitten but amnesia kicked in when he was asked about it afterwards.
"Perhaps I had sunstroke," he said before adding, after being told that his words had been picked up by the official's microphone: "It will teach me for pulling people out of rucks by their head." It will be one for the match commissioner.
Victory had sated Hartley's desire for retribution. Northampton will return to Milton Keynes on 1 May for a semi-final against Perpignan, with whom they shared a pool last season, when both matches were won comfortably by the home side. If Saints are unlikely to enjoy the kind of pre-eminence in the scrums they enjoyed here, at least as long as the France prop Nicolas Mas is on the field, it will not stop them digging for weaknesses. If there is little in Saints to thrill those of a romantic disposition, their doggedness, focus and stamina were too much for Ulster. For all their willingness to seek space, the Irish province ended up lost in it.
Ulster have won six consecutive matches in the Magners League, climbing to second in the table, but although they scored 13 unanswered points here after conceding such an early try they were never in control. Northampton started the second half by forcing penalties at scrums, lineouts and mauls and gaining territory. Stephen Myler's second penalty drew them level before Dickson's try forced Ulster to bring on replacements and the cracks in their game turned into rubble. D'Arcy's knock-on was followed by Myler extending his side's lead to 10 points and it was only in the final minutes that Northampton used their bench.
England will have a Heineken semi-finalist, unlike last season, and Northampton have confounded their chairman, Keith Barwell, who wants the salary cap in the Premiership ended because he fears that it prevents teams from competing in the Heineken Cup on an even basis with the bigger-spending French clubs and some of the Celtic sides. The Saints are far from spent in Europe.
Northampton Foden; Ashton, Clarke, Downey, Diggin; Myler, Dickson; Tonga'uiha (Waller, 78), Hartley (capt; Sharman, 78), Mujati, Lawes, Day, Dowson (Clark, 73), Wood, Wilson.
Tries Tonga'uiha, Dickson Cons Myler 2 Pens Myler 3.
Ulster D'Arcy; Trimble, Spence, Wallace, Danielli (Gilroy, 73); Humphreys, Pienaar; Court, Best (capt), Botha (McAllister, 72), Muller (Whitten, 79), Tuohy (Barker, 58), Diack (Faloon, 65), Henry, Wannenburg.
Try Trimble Con Humphreys Pens Humphreys 2.
Referee R Poite (France) Attendance 21,309.
