Ulster in pink as Humphreys sinks Stade

Round-up

Ulster produced the performance of the Heineken Cup weekend yesterday, beating Stade Français 23-13 at Ravenhill. Nigel Brady and Simon Danielli scored thrilling long-range tries, both set up by the resplendently bearded fly-half Ian Humphreys, who also kicked 13 points. Lionel Beauxis kicked two penalties for Stade and Noel Oelschig converted Julien Arias's late try.

"I think Ulster get a lot of bad press because a lot of people arrive here and complain about the conditions ... and then treat our rugby accordingly," said Brian McLaughlin, Ulster's coach. "Hopefully, with the way we played, the way we managed the game and the way we took our tries, people will take a bit of notice of us and realise we can actually play a bit of rugby around here."

The Pool Four match finished with suspicion hanging over Stade's Julien Dupuy, for apparently gouging Stephen Ferris. The latter said: "I'll leave it to the citing commissioner to decide what happened. I don't want to get anybody in trouble and I hate to see people cited in general. It's a physical game – if somebody hits me a smack in the jaw, I'll shake it off and get on with it. But gouging is a different story. We can't have it."

In Wales, in Pool Six, Leinster beat the previously unbeaten Scarlets 32-7. Shane Horgan, Gordon D'Arcy, Shaun Berne and Sean O'Brien scored tries for the holders, Berne kicking 12 points. Jonathan Davies scored the Scarlets' try, which Stephen Jones converted.

In Italy, the Ospreys beat Viadana 62-7 to go top of Pool Three. The Welsh region scored eight tries. Richard Hibberd scored two and Alun Wyn Jones, Nikki Walker, Jerry Collins, Ricky Januarie, Tommy Bowe and Gareth Owen scored one each. Dan Biggar kicked 22 points. Viadana's try came from Gavin Quinnell. Garry Law converted.

Non-Italian names in Italian club teams are a fact of Heineken Cup life, but it is worth noting that the Ospreys, one of four regions whose raison d'être might reasonably be presumed to be the production of Welsh talent, fielded six non-Welsh players – both wings, the entire back row and the scrum-half. The last was the Springbok Januarie, who was making his Ospreys debut as Welsh Rugby Union-sanctioned cover for a crisis in his position. Liam Davies, man of the match in the win over Munster last week, is not in the Heineken Cup squad.

Of Januarie, the Ospreys assistant coach, Jonathan Humphreys, said: "We were delighted with Ricky's performance. He had only had a 10-minute team run with us, but as a professional he was excellent. We sent him a lot of information out to South Africa, so he was up to speed."

In the Amlin Challenge Cup, a late try from Rhys Oakley helped Leeds avoid embarrassment in the snow in Romania. The Premiership side beat Bucuresti Oaks 10-6, Jason Strange kicking a conversion and a penalty against two penalties by Florin Vlaicu.

At Adams Park, Wasps beat Bayonne 22-18. Tom Varndell scored two tries and Dave Walder kicked four penalties, against four by Cédric Garcia and two by Craig Gower.

Worcester lost 26-21 at home to Connacht. Ian Keatley, Fionn Carr and Sean Cronin scored tries for the Irish side, Keatley kicking three penalties and a conversion. Willie Walker scored a try and kicked a conversion and three penalties for Worcester and Tom Wood also scored a try.

In the IRB Sevens in George, South Africa, British sides won a full crockery set – England taking the Plate, Wales the Bowl and Scotland the Shield – but New Zealand won the actual tournament, beating Fiji in the final.