It was a night of mixed emotions for young Ulster centre Ben Carson.
A diving finish into the corner down the right wing gave Ulster an early lead. And when he stormed his way over for a second match-night try midway through the second half, he must have thought he had done enough to secure another home win over arch rivals Leinster.
But a James Culhane try capped off a strong finish from the visitors which meant the victory points went back down the motorway to D4.
“We are obviously really disappointed because we back ourselves to beat anyone.”
“That was a good Leinster side out there. Everyone goes on about Leinster B team Leinster B team but it doesn’t matter they are still a brilliant side,” explained Carson.
“We’d still back ourselves to beat anyone and we are just really disappointed. We could have won that game. We were in it the whole time but it just sort of slipped away from us at the end.”
When coming face to face against Leinster, nine times out of ten you are going to be underdogs. But Ulster only fell narrowly short of the line against their star-studded guests.
And as Carson explains, it all boils down to marginal errors.
“That’s just sport at the end of the day, they could have been in front four times we could have been in front four times, it just comes down to the wire.”
“It is those small moments in a game of rugby especially at the highest level like this.”
“We were disappointed, but we’ll review it during the week and go forward towards Toulouse.”
Ulster must now dust themselves off and prepare for their Champions cup opener against holders Toulouse. And the Lisburn man couldn’t think of a better place to start the campaign.
“We’re going over to Toulouse with the full expectation of winning like we do every game and we’re excited.”
“It is going to be tough but hopefully the weather is going to be better that it was here, we like to play a good brand of rugby and a nice dry ball is always a bonus.”
Carson has made quite an impression in his breakthrough year.
With James Hume facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines, Carson has more than put his hand up to fill the number 13 jersey in the best possible fashion.
Going to South Africa at the start of the season as a relative unknown quantity, Carson returned with a try under his belt after making quite an impression on his debut against the Bulls.
“That was my first start (against the Bulls). My first cap was against Connacht and that was kind of last minute, I was 24th man and I came into the squad pretty late.
“The Bulls was my first experience of pro rugby properly; I felt I played well and that gave me the confidence to go forward and I knew after that I could play at this level.”
