Pienaar-inspired Ulster thump Tigers

South African star Ruan Pienaar kicked 21 points as Ulster routed former double champions Leicester Tigers by 41-7 on Friday in the Heineken Cup.

The bonus-point win gave Ulster 19 points on top of Pool Four and left 2001 and 2002 winners Leicester virtually out of contention for a last-eight place.

Ulster, the 1999 champions, were off to a flying start at Ravenhill, racing into 10-0 lead inside the first 10 minutes with winger Andrew Trimble diving into the corner for the opening try with Springbok scrumhalf Pienaar adding the extras.

Ice-cool Pienaar then added a penalty but Leicester's veteran skipper Geordan Murphy cut the deficit on the quarter-hour mark.

England scrumhalf Ben Youngs was the architect with a clever, delayed pass which sucked in three Ulster defenders and allowed 34-year-old Murphy to sprint through the gap and score his 24th career try in the competition.

Flyhalf Billy Twelvetrees converted for 10-7 to the home side.

But Leicester were then penalised at the breakdown on the halfway line and Pienaar booted a monster, long distance penalty for a 13-7 advantage after 33 minutes.

Pienaar, a 51-cap international, then set up Trimble for a carbon-copy of his opening try just before the interval with the Irish international winger shrugging off the muscular attentions of Alesana Tuilagi to touch down, tight in the corner.

This time Pienaar was off target with a tricky conversion, but Ulster were still in front 18-7 at the break.

Twelvetrees, deputising for the injured Toby Flood, missed a simple opportunity to cut the deficit in the second minute of the second half when he cracked his penalty against a post.

Pienaar then showed Twelvetrees how to do it by hitting two successive penalties - awarded for hands in the ruck and for holding onto the ball - for a 24-7 advantage.

Leicester's discipline and shape continued to disintegrate and Pienaar again popped over a penalty for a 27-7 lead before the English side lost replacement forward Dan Cole to the sin bin for arguing with the referee.

Ulster's third try also had a significant South African stamp on it when Pienaar, fullback Stefan Terblanche and No.8 Pedrie Wannenburg all combined to send Craig Gilroy over.

Pienaar hit the conversion before the home side secured the bonus point eight minutes from time when replacement flyhalf Paul Marshall took a tap penalty and sprinted away for the score.

Not surprisingly, Pienaar added the conversion for his 21st point of the night.

The scorers:

For Ulster:
Tries: Trimble 2, Gilroy, Marshall
Cons: Pienaar 3
Pens: Pienaar 5

For Leicester:
Try: Murphy
Con: Twelvetrees

Yellow card(s): Dan Cole (Leicester, 62nd minute - arguing with referee)

The teams:

Ulster: 15 Stefan Terblanché, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Darren Cave, 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Craig Gilroy, 10 Ian Humphreys, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Pedrie Wannenburg, 7 Chris Henry, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Dan Tuohy, 4 Johann Muller (captain), 3 John Afoa, 2 Rory Best, 1 Tom Court.
Replacements: 16 Nigel Brady, 17 Callum Black, 18 Adam Macklin, 19 Lewis Stevenson, 20 Willie Faloon, 21 Paul Marshall, 22 Ian Whitten, 23 Adam D'Arcy.

Leicester: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Matt Smith, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Billy Twelvetrees, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Jules Salvi, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Steve Mafi, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Rob Hawkins, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 George Chuter, 17 Boris Stankovich, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Ed Slater, 20 Ben Woods, 21 Sam Harrison, 22 Jeremy Staunton, 23 Scott Hamilton.

AFP