Irish delighted in victory

"It was about time we gave the crowd a performance like that," said Heineken Man of the Match Catt.

But the 2003 World Cup winner warned his players they have to "back up that performance at Ravenhill next week." The five points brought Irish back into play in the group and left Catt purring.

"We definitely needed that result. Ulster came her with a full strength side, we went down to 13 men and just before half-time they got back to within a point," said Catt.

"We showed a lot of character and the team spirit was great. We knew we had the upper hand in the first 30/35 minutes before they hit back and we had to tough it out in the second half.

"We haven't talked about qualification. We knew the pressure wasn0t on us as much as it was on Ulster before this game, but I guess our keys are back in the ring after this result.

"The important thing now is to back up this performance when we go to Ulster on Friday night." Ulster coach Mark McCall promised his team wouldn't give up on their Heineken Cup campaign even if he feels their chances of getting through to the last eight are now slim.

"People will be saying our season is now over, but we are a proud bunch. We still have our Magners League crown to defend and we will be giving it our all in the last three European games," said McCall.

"We knew that if we didn0t win at the Madejski we were effectively out of the competition. Even so, we still want to win our last three games.

"It was a hugely disappointing defeat for us."