Ulster thrash Cardiff Blues

Back to his best: Jared Payne

Related links

Teams

• Cardiff Blues
• Ulster

Ulster maintained their unbeaten record with a convincing 48-19 win over Cardiff Blues in their PRO12 clash in Cardiff on Friday.

Tommy Bowe and Nick Williams led the charge for Ulster by scoring a brace of tries apiece.

The early exchanges went Cardiff's way, as Jason Tovey's boots got the Blues on the scoreboard with two early penalties.

But Ulster's dominant pack came to the fore, providing the backs with the ammunition to score. Michael Allen twisted his way over to score the first try of the night, and was injured in the process, giving way to Paddy Wallace.

Williams' first score came on the half hour as he powered over the line, and with Paddy Jackson's second conversion, gave the Ulstermen a 17-9 half-time lead.

Cardiff opened the second half scoring, with Gareth Davies on for the injured Tovey slotting a penalty seven minutes in. The home side hardly had time to draw breath from that score, when Bowe ran over for his first of the night, adding a second only seven minutes later, sandwiching a score by Jared Payne who had collected his own chip and chase.

Having seen the visitors collect their try-scoring bonus point, the Cardiff side were galvanised, and Harry Robinson finished a fine move that had taken the ball the width of Ulster's 22.

Ulster's forward domination came to the fore again, as man of the match Williams grabbed his second and Ulster's sixth try of the night.

Despite a late surge from Cardiff, they were unable to make any headway against the Ulster defence, and with only three minutes left, Andrew Trimble collected a fumble on the Cardiff 22, dotting between the posts, for Jackson to add the extras. That final score led to Ulster's largest score on Welsh soil, and keeps them as the only unbeaten side left in the PRO12.

The scorers:

For Cardiff Blues:
Try: Robinson
Cons: G Davies
Pens: Tovey 3, G Davies

For Ulster:
Tries: Bowe 2, Williams 2, Allen, Payne, Trimble
Cons: Jackson 4
Pen: Jackson

Cardiff Blues: 15 Dan Fish, 14 Harry Robinson, 13 Dafydd Hewitt, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Tom James, 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Lloyd Williams, 8 Andries Pretorius (c), 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Robin Copeland, 5 James Down, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Taufa'ao Filise, 2 Andi Kyriacou, 1 Nathan Trevett.
Replacements: 16 Rhys Williams, 17 Campese Ma'afu, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 Lou Reed, 20 Rory Watts-Jones, 21 Rob Lewis, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 Tom Williams.

Ulster: 15 Jared Payne, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Michael Allen, 12 Darren Cave, 11 Andrew Trimble, 10 Paddy Jackson, 9 Paul Marshall, 8 Nick Williams, 7 Chris Henry (c), 6 Iain Henderson, 5 Dan Tuohy, 4 Neil McComb, 3 John Afoa, 2 Nigel Brady, 1 Tom Court.
Replacements: 16 Rob Herring, 17 Callum Black, 18 Adam Macklin, 19 Lewis Stevenson, 20 Mike McComish, 21 Michael Heaney, 22 Paddy Wallace, 23 Craig Gilroy.

Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy)