ULSTER'S Heineken Cup nightmare away from home continues. Following yesterday's defeat to London Irish in Reading . . . a result that effectively ends their chances of qualifying for the knock-out stages for an eight season in a row . . . Mark McCall's side have still to record a European away victory on English soil and you get the feeling they won't have many better chances than yesterday.

With London Irish reduced to 13 men for a good 10 minutes of action either side of the interval, Ulster could only breach the opposition line once and they paid the ultimate price for their profligacy. Just 11 minutes after a bright and inventive London Irish side were back to their full compliment, the impressive Shane Geraghty scored a try under the Ulster posts, and converted it himself, to leave his side eight points in front and there was no way back from there.

The visitors did huff and puff about the place in the final quarter as they attempted to get back into the game, but they just didn't appear to have the off-the-cuff quality to unlock a disciplined Irish defence. The home side, in complete contrast, were bursting with ideas every time they got their mitts on the ball and they weren't afraid, either, to have a go from any area of the pitch.

Geraghty, their Irish qualified 20-year-old out-half, was full of nice touches and every time they swung the ball beyond Mike Catt at first centre, they looked extremely dangerous.

Not only that, they showed remarkable organisation and guts to only concede seven points when down to 13 men.

For that period alone, they fully deserved their first Heineken Cup victory of the season. And it was their potency out wide that set the victory in motion. After Robbie Russell and Bob Casey both had a pop around the fringes inside the Ulster 22, a Mike Catt pass and an excellent Seilala Mapusua flick put Juan Leguizamon through a cleverly engineered gap. The rest was purely academic.

Two minutes later and the Exiles were celebrating again.

This time a devilish chip from Geraghty bounced in front of Catt, who fly-hacked the ball into the air and towards the Ulster line. The ball could have bounced anywhere but it popped nicely into the 35year-old's path. Geraghty converted both tries to leave Irish 14-3 up heading towards halftime but after Humphreys had narrowed that lead to 146 with a 34th minute penalty, Joel Jutge turned on the game on its head. Both Delon Armitage and Justin Bishop were sent to the bin within the space of five minutes and with the home side down to 13 men, Paul Steinmetz went over. Humphreys convert left a single point between the sides at the interval but remarkably, that converted try was the only points conceded by Irish while down to 13 men. Returned to their full compliment, London Irish got back in the groove pretty quickly. Leguizamon went on a rampaging break up the right wing and although he was hauled down short of the line, Ulster never really recovered, Geraghty eventually scything past Humphreys to seal the game. Barry Everitt even landed an 80th minute penalty before Sailosi Tagicakibau finished off another well constructed move down the left touchline.

You couldn't argue that they didn't deserve it.

LONDON IRISH D Armitage; J Bishop, S Mapusua, M Catt (c), S Tagicakibau; S Geraghty, P Hodgson; N Hatley, R Russell, T Lea'aetoa, N Kennedy, R Casey, K Roche, S Armitage, J Leguizamon Subs M Collins for Russell and D Coetzee for Heatley, both 49mins; P Murphy for Roche, 56mins; F Rautenbach for Lea'aetoa, 62mins; B Everitt for Geraghty and G Tiesi for Catt, both 74mins;

J Hudson for Kennedy, 78mins Sin bin D Armitage 39mins; Bishop 40+4mins ULSTER B Cunningham; T Bowe, P Steinmetz, P Wallace, A Trimble; D Humphreys, I Boss; B Young, R Best, S Best (c), J Harrison, M McCullough, N Best, K Dawson, R Wilson Subs J Fitzpatrick for Young, 21mins; M Bartholomeusz for Cunningham, 65mins Referee J Jutge (France)