Herring Hat-Trick Puts Ulster On Course For Half-Century Haul

Ulster moved into the GUINNESS PRO14 play-off places in Conference B after putting Zebre to the sword in a 54-7 bonus point at Kingspan Stadium tonight.

Man-of-the-match Rob Herring scored a hat-trick of tries in the first half an hour, while Robert Lyttle, Louis Ludik, Robert Baloucoune, Peter Nelson and a penalty try took the province’s try tally to eight in all as they reclaimed third spot, taking advantage of Edinburgh’s loss to Cardiff Blues.

Full-back Ludik’s deliberate knock-on for Zebre’s 24th-minute penalty try, which also saw him sin-binned, was Ulster’s only concession. Their head coach Dan McFarland said afterwards: “We need points, it’s tight. It was important that we got as many points as we could and we played well enough to get the try bonus.

“I think we got on top of them in the set piece, they are a good set piece side but I thought we totally dominated in that area, it allowed us to get a platform in the game and get on and score tries. Some of our execution, we didn’t execute stuff which if we had we would have gone on to score more points.

“The result was brilliant and we should be very happy with that, Rob Lyttle did very well, Rob Baloucoune did very well and James Hume lovely hands (for Baloucoune’s try) and I thought the two senior centres did very well too. Darren Cave showed great pace down the far side for his 222nd cap so there were a lot of guys who played very well.

“I’m unhappy on the basis as I’m always looking at the performance as a whole and not just the result, but we’ve always got to look at stuff to improve. We go to Dragons next and it’s a really important game for us in the context of the league at the moment with ourselves, Edinburgh, Benetton and Scarlets in the thick of it for two play-off spots.

“It’s so very important to pick up wins where we can. We’re going to Dragons to try and win the game and that’s all we’ll be focusing on. You know that when you go to Rodney Parade you have to front up and be strong and work hard. If you don’t do those things, you lose.”

Hooker Herring broke the deadlock in the 15th minute, Zebre leaking a penalty and the home forwards set up a powerful maul which James Brown stopped illegally and earned himself a yellow card. Ulster went to the corner again and the drive led to Herring peeling off the back to score. Taking on the kicking duties, winger Lyttle missed the conversion.

Try number two arrived four minutes later and it was a carbon copy of the first. Zebre gave away a penalty inside their 22, out-half Nelson kicked to the corner, the lineout was secured and Herring again burst off the back to barge over with Lyttle’s conversion making it 12-0.

Zebre responded when centre Giulio Bisegni charged into the Ulster 22 and as he attempted to pass out of a tackle to the supporting Francois Brummer, Ludik knocked it down. Referee Mike Adamson ruled that it was deliberate, awarding the visitors a penalty try and sending Ludik to the bin.

However, the Ulstermen bounced back with two more tries to lead 26-7 at the interval. Another well-executed maul saw Herring complete his hat-trick with 30 minutes on the clock, before a slick handling move opened up space on the left and Stuart McCloskey and Cave put winger Lyttle over in the corner, past a last-ditch tackle.

The scores kept coming with Ulster gaining a 45th-minute penalty try after Zebre stopped an advancing maul illegally. Ludik got on the scoresheet soon after, profiting from a neat set-up involving David Shanahan and Sean Reidy and showing the defence a clean pair of heels to slide over. Lyttle was successful with the difficult conversion from the right, making it 40-7.

With Zebre replacement prop Roberto Tenga sin-binned nearing the hour mark, Ulster made their numerical advantage count. The forwards went through the phases from another lineout platform and when possession was spun wide, great hands from Nelson and Hume released Baloucoune to raid over from the right wing.

Lyttle finished with a 17-point haul, landing his sixth successful conversion after Nelson’s strong run took him past the first defender and he managed to spin and stretch out of a double tackle to score. Ulster’s hands were very good in the build-up again, particularly Clive Ross’ offload out of a tackle, as they crossed the 50-point mark.