The match began with quick passing across the park from Stade Francais, kitted out in their remarkable pink coloured jerseys, apparently inspired by Pop Art legend Andy Warhol. There was nothing artisitic about Julien Beauxis' 6^th minute penalty however, which he screwed wide, although Juan Hernandez made amends two minutes later with a drop-goal opening the score at 3-0. A further attempt on 12 minutes from the Stade fly-half went just inches wide.

An unpopular decision from referee Nigel Owens inside Ulster's 22 gave Stade possession on 23 minutes and literally seconds later Guillaume Bousses had grounded the try after lightning-quick passing between the French backs. Beauxis converted and four minutes later, another cultured drop-goal from Hernandez made it 16-0.

Back in the Stade half, Ulster elected for the lineout instead of the kick on the half-hour and this led to almost ten minutes of sustained attacking and a succession of penalties which the home team chose to play rather than kick. Clinton Schifcofske came frustratingly close to the line on 35 minutes only to be crowded out by the Stade defence, and Ulster's pressure was to break down minutes later with their scoresheet still blank.

Half-time score Ulster 0 Stade Francais 16

It looked as though Matt Williams' half-time team talk had lifted the Ulstermen as they had the better of the opening exchanges of the second-half. Stephen Ferris managed to recuperate a loose pass on 44 minutes to keep the momentum going but once again Ulster failed to convert pressure into points, until the 48^th minute when Niall O'Connor slotted away a long-distance penalty making it 3-16.

Stade responded exactly as is to be expected from a side of their calibre, bursting immediately onto the attack only to be thwarted by steadfast Ulster defending. The pressure paid off eventually on 56 minutes however when hooker Dimitri Swarewski was credited with the second try of the afternoon, duly converted by Beauxis to set the score at 3-23.

Another superb drop-goal, this time from Beauxis, widened the gap further on 62 minutes. Despite the deficit Ulster refused to give up and were only denied a score on 67 minutes when a misplaced final pass allowed the French to clear. On 72 minutes however they did get over, Paddy Wallace winning the race to touch down a searching kick, and O'Connor made no mistake with the conversion, putting the score at 10-26.

Strong kicking and running from Andrew Trimble with three minutes to go shook up the French defence one more time, but Stade were able to clear their lines after the subsequent line-out and put an end to any hopes of an Ulster revival. Next weekend sees an equally difficult-looking encounter at Harlequins in the second Heineken Cup fixture of the season.

Full-time score Ulster 10 Stade Francais 26

Replacements: (16-22) N Brady, J Fitzpatrick, C Del Fava, M McCullough, C Willis, I Humphreys, P Steinmetz