HEINEKEN CUP POOL 1 Stade Francais (7) 13 Tries: Marconnet Cons: Dominguez Pens: Dominguez 2 Ulster (10) 10 Tries: Humphreys Cons: Humphreys Pens: Humphreys

Ulster crashed out of the Heineken Cup in the gloom of Paris on Saturday when they were edged out by Stade Francais.

Despite an extremely brave performance they went down to a very shaky French side and even the bonus they achieved did them little good in a tight pool.

David Humphreys scored all of Ulster's points in a very scrappy first half.

In the end it was the boot of Diego Dominguez who won the day as he converted Sylvain Marconnet's try and kicked two second-half penalties.

Defences were very much on top in the opening half, and it took a fluffed kick by Brian Liebenberg to allow Ulster to take a shock lead in the 12th minute.

We definitely deserved at least a draw out of that game... I think that would have been a much fairer result Ulster coach Alan Solomons

Stade were on the attack, but Humphreys was up quickly on his own 10-metre line to charge down the French international's kick, and the Ulsterman collected and sprinted in under the posts.

Humphreys converted his own try, but within two minutes Stade were level when a forward drive took lock Arnaud Marchois over with Dominguez converting.

Ulster went ahead again in the 30th minute when Humphreys rifled over a long-range penalty. However, they had to withstand yet another tremendous response from the home side.

Four times Ulster had to make try-saving tackles near their own line and then had skipper Andy Ward sin-binned for the second week in succession.

But a brilliantly-organised Ulster defence held out as they took a 10-7 half-time advantage.

If we had won here then we would definitely have been in with a chance of winning the pool... but you never give up hope Alan Solomons

It was the same on the resumption with Stade making in-roads, but Ulster frustrating the Frenchmen with some outstanding first-up defence.

However, Dominguez levelled in the 53rd minute with a penalty, and then six minutes later put his side ahead with a straightforward kick.

Humphreys had a chance to level, but his long-range penalty drifted just wide.

For the final minutes, Stade killed the game by preventing Ulster from mounting a serious attack. Ulster never looked like winning their first game on French soil, but they certainly made the French Aristrocrats fight all the way.

Stade Francais: I Corleto; T Lombard, J Hernandez, B Liebenberg, C Dominici; D Dominguez, G Mahe; S Marconnet, B August (capt), P De Villiers, P Tabacco, A Marchois, C Moni, R Martin, P Rabadan.
Replacements: M Blin, B Mololo, J Bado, R Jechoux, R Poulain, D Skrela, I Vass.

Ulster: B Cunningham; J Topping; S Mallon, P Steinmetz, T Howe; D Humphreys, N Doak; R Kempson, P Shields, R Moore, M McCullough, G Longwell, A Ward (capt), N McMillan, R Wilson.
Replacements: N Brady, S Best, M Mustchin, N Best, K Campbell, A Larkin, P Wallace.

Referee: Chris White (England).