Rob Herring not taking the plaudits for Ulster try hat-trick

All three of the Ireland international’s tries came as he crashed over from the back of driving mauls but unlike football he wasn’t allowed to keep the match ball for bagging a hat-trick.

“I don’t think they do that these days,” he laughed.

“It was a good performance from the boys and to get five points out of that we’ll move on and we’ve a big game next week against the Dragons.

“I have (scored a hat-trick before) but not for Ulster anyway but that’s from a lot of hard work from the boys I’m just lucky I get to put it down.

“We looked at the Ospreys game and we had dominance from our maul but we didn’t get to finish any of them off.

“The big focus coming into this game was that we wanted a few completions and fair play to the boys up front who did the business, it’s nice to have something we worked on in the week come through in the game.”

Herring feels the Ulster pack is improving.

“We’ve shown it in patches this season and I guess it’s now about really laying down a marker to do it consistently.

“I think that the Ospreys was a good performance from the pack we didn’t finish the opportunities but we created them and this week was another good one.

“We saw Zebre last week against Leinster and they really dominated Leinster’s scrums so we knew they would be tough coming out here and we wanted to lay a marker down in the scrum as well.

“There was a lot of weight coming behind the front three and that’s a credit to the rest of the boys in the pack as well.”

Ulster travel for Sunday’s game in Newport to face a Dragons side who are only above the Southern Kings at the bottom of Conference B on points difference.

“Over the last few years we haven’t done too well at the Dragons and we have had scrappy games and we’ve probably just come through a few of them on the right side,” said Herring.

“We’ve had a couple of good games now and we’ve got to keep the momentum going and create another bit of buzz away this weekend.

“We’re following a culture within the squad where we are trying to create our own bubble when we go away, especially places like the Dragons.

“It’s a tough atmosphere over there to play in but we’re looking forward to it and we have to lay down a marker again before we have some time off.

“When you go away from home first it’s about the performance and if the win comes from that, that’s great and the five points is a bonus.

“It’s going to be a really tough game there and we just have to build it moment for moment and try and secure the win first and see what happens after that.

“Our side of the table is really tight and we can’t be looking at others.

“We’ve just got to keep our heads down and keep working hard and hopefully put another performance in next week and get some more points.”

Meanwhile, Ulster lock Kieran Treadwell could miss this weekend’s game at Dragons after sustaining concussion in the win over Zebre.

Ulster Rugby announced yesterday in a medical update that the the 23-year-old second row will follow the return to play protocols.

Treadwell represented England at U20 level but qualifies for Ireland through his Irish mother and made his Test debut during the 2017 summer tour to the USA.