Ulster seal impressive victory over star-studded Bulls at Ravenhill

A three-try blitz in eight second-half minutes when the Bulls had a man in the sin bin gives Ulster a prefect 10 points before their two-game trip to South Africa.

The Bulls included South African world cup winners Handre Pollard and Canan Moodie in their backline while Willie La Roux was pressed into action early on.

Ther Bulls wasted a number of scoring opportunities in the first half through a mixture of errors and good defence from the home side before Ulster pulled away in the second period.

Ulster took the lead at the end of the first quarter with a try from Ireland centre Stuart McCloskey.

The Bulls were trying to launch a counter attack but a stray pass went loose on half way, Nathan Doak fly-hacked on and McCloskey had the speed and power to beat the last covering defender and touch down, the Ulster scrum-half adding the conversion.

After conceding a number of penalties on their own try line Ulster hooker Rob Herring was yellow-carded on 26 minutes.

The Bulls made their numerical advantage count immediately, opting to take a quick tap penalty after a couple of phases with Springbok tighthead prop Wilco Louw powering over from close range. Double World Cup-winning South African out-half Handre Polland converted.

Doak missed the opportunity to restore Ulster’s lead three minutes later as his long range penalty struck the upright.

Neither Ulster or the Bulls could create a scoring opportunity in the final 10 minutes of the first half so the sides went into the interval level at 7-7.

The Bulls No8 Jeandre Rudolph was sin-binned six minutes after the restart for deliberately kicking the ball in front of his own posts.

Ulster scored their second try two minutes later as Juarno Augustus went over on his first start for the province.

The home side elected to take a tap penalty. Following a series of pick and goes Ulster’s South African No8 barged over and Doak converted.

A third try followed on 54 minutes, Jack Murphy kicked a penalty to the corner, the pack set up a maul and hooker Rob Herring was propelled over with Doak on target to add the extras.

The bonus point try arrived two minutes later for Richie Murphy’s side.

Jacob Stockdale made an initial break, the ball was moved quickly across the pitch, Dave McCann fielded a high kick and popped the ball inside for Cormac Izuchukwu to dot down, Doak added the conversion.

Stockdale was close to adding a fifth try in the closing stages but was brought down close to the line and Zac Ward couldn’t hold his offload from the ground.

Ulster: J Stockdale; R Baloucoune, J Hume, S McCloskey, Z Ward; J Murphy, N Doak;

S Crean, R Herring, T O’Toole; I Henderson (capt), C Izuchukwu; D McCann, N Timoney, J Augustus.

Replacements:

T Stewart for Herring 61 mins, E O’Sullivan for Crean 62 mins, S Wilson for O’Toole 47 mins, H Sheridan for Izuchukwu 61 mins, S Reffell for Augustus 59 mins, C McKee for Doak 74 mins, J Flannery for Murphy 70 mins, J Postlethwaite for McCloskey 68 mins

Bulls:

D Williams; S de Klerk, C Moodie, H Vorster, S Jacobs; H Pollard, Z Burger;

G Steenekamp, J Grobbelaar (capt), W Louw; C Wiese, N Janse van Rensburg; M van Staden, M Gumede, J Rudolph.

Replacements:

J Else for Grobbelaar 68 mins, J-H Wessels for Steenkamp 55 mins, M Smith for Louw 55 mins, R Ludwig for van Rensburg 55 mins, N Xaba for van Staden 51 mins, P de Wet for Burger 59 mins, D Kriel for Vorster 70 mins, W le Roux for Williams 15 mins

Ref: M Adamson (SRU).