 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  | |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  | |  |
So often the side for the big occasion, Leicester failed to turn up in Belfast while the hosts produced one of their most memorable European performances since their famous Heineken Cup winning campaign 13 years ago.
The Tigers shipped two tries in either half to Andrew Trimble (2), Craig Gilroy and Paul Marshall, while Ruan Pienaar slotted 21 points in a near faultless kicking display that featured three conversions and five penalties.
"There wasn't a part of the game where we had dominance," said Cockerill, whose side now look destined to miss out on a Heineken Cup quarter final for just the fifth time in 15 seasons.
"We struggled to get a foothold in the game. They took their chances and built their scores and once Dan Cole went to the bin they cranked it up again.
"They were very good at every facet. They controlled the field position, controlled the ball very well, defended very well, attacked the breakdown and we couldn't cope with it.
"We got back into the game at 10-7 but they D-d up very well, put us under pressure and they took their opportunities.
"We struggled at the breakdown the whole night, they kicked their goals, they kept chipping away and we never had parity in any part of the game."
Leicester arrived in Northern Ireland without England trio Toby Flood, Manu Tuilagi and Louis Deacon who all succumbed to injury over the festive period but no one predicted the nature of the scoreline that silenced the travelling Tigers support.
Cockerill highlighted the difficulties caused by those absentees and a congested Christmas and New Year fixture list but he was equally quick to praise Ulster's brilliance and shy away from attempting to disguise his team's shortcomings.
"They deserved their win. We can talk about four games in 18 days and what have you but we didn't cope with the intensity," added Cockerill.
"We don't want to be conceding 40 points but they're a good side, and like I say, we didn't cope with it.
"We had four of five key players missing, we didn't have the same quality to bring in and we got punished. But it's not an excuse and I don't want to use it as that.
"We needed to come here and get a result and we thought we could do that. Not having some key players had an affect on us but the side was good enough to put up a better show than that."
