Ulster powered their way to a second bonus point victory over the Scarlets at Kingspan Stadium, strengthening their claim on a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final berth with three wins from four, and two rounds to come next month.
Briefly level with Pool 4 leaders Racing 92 on 14 points before the Paris club’s 37-11 bonus point win at Leicester Tigers on Sunday, Dan McFarland’s side still have everything to play for in their remaining pool fixtures at home to Racing and away to Tigers in January.
An Iain Henderson brace and scores from Jacob Stockdale and John Cooney secured the bonus point tonight, but much as it had been last week in Llanelli, it was the collective cohesion throughout the team which made the win just as comfortable as the scoreline suggested.
Head coach McFarland kept faith with the matchday 23 that secured last Friday’s 25-24 bonus point success, selecting a back-three of Louis Ludik, Henry Speight and Stockdale, centres Will Addison and Stuart McCloskey, and the half-back tandem of Billy Burns, the eventual man-of-the-match, and Cooney.
The unchanged pack featured a front row of Eric O’Sullivan, captain Rory Best and Martin Moore, locks Henderson and Kieran Treadwell and an ever-busy back row of Sean Reidy, Jordi Murphy and number 8 Marcell Coetzee, the scorer of the bonus point try in round 3.
Ulster made no bones about their intent straight from the off, Burns sending a searching kick down each wing in the opening three minutes to put the Scarlets on the back foot, but it was an old-fashioned pick-and-drive that brought the first points of the evening. It forced a penalty that Cooney fired over from just inside the 10-metre line.
Addison was soon touching down – albeit from a clear forward pass from Speight – and the game pursued a course of high perspiration with little inspiration until the 28th minute. A key spell saw three cynical team infringements lead to the sin-binning of Scarlets prop Wyn Jones, and two scrums later, Henderson barged his way over for a try.
The Cooney conversion took Ulster to double figures at 10-0, but a Rhys Patchell penalty in the 38th minute kept the Scarlets in touch, with their loosehead’s return to the pitch seconds later restoring a level playing field for the start of the second half.
A Scarlets interception eight minutes after the restart led to a kick-and-chase spanning almost the entire length of the pitch, and despite the best efforts of Addison and Speight to track back, Jonathan Davies slid onto the loose ball right on the try-line for the score. Referee Luke Pearce and TMO Graham Hughes were satisfied that there had been no Scarlets offside in the lead up to the Patchell-converted effort.
However, the sides were only level for barely a minute as, in Ulster’s very next attack, a pinpoint kick in behind from Burns was gobbled up by Stockdale on the left wing, and the 22-year-old made short work of the two covering defenders, evading the clutches of both to grab his second in as many games against the Welshmen.
Cooney’s conversion flew wide of the target, but he made no such mistake with a central penalty just before the hour. With the experience of Darren Cave now in midfield, as a replacement for Stockdale, Ulster wasted little time in administering the killer blow. Henderson showed impressive strength to complete his brace from close range after persistent play from his fellow forwards.
This time Cooney’s aim was true, and now simply irresistible, the Ulstermen pocketed another valuable bonus point within five minutes. It was their goal-kicking scrum half who applied the finishing touches off a rolling maul once Best had taken the ball to the line.
To their credit, the Scarlets toiled away for the remaining 10 minutes, eventually grabbing their consolation try two minutes from time courtesy of Tom Prydie. It mattered little, however, and Ulster can now turn their attention back to the GUINNESS PRO14 where festive interprovincial clashes with Munster, Connacht and Leinster await.
Giving his reaction afterwards, McFarland admitted: “I’m really satisfied with the result, obviously five points and ten points from two games against the Scarlets is a situation which any team would be pleased with due to the quality of opposition they are.
“In terms of the performance there was lots in that that we’d be very happy with. We were a little bit disappointing going in at half-time (at 10-3) in the fact that we hadn’t pushed the game on so there was an intensity in our defence which wasn’t quite at the level we wanted it to be.
“We’d also turned over a couple of balls and lost them in contact, we spoke about that at half-time and we spoke about not giving them access in the second half and I felt that third quarter, albeit for the exceptional intercept try, we did that. Our defence for the main part in that second half was very good.”
This website uses cookies.
Read More