Ulster seal third consecutive home win in United Rugby Championship with bonus point victory over Ospreys
Ulster made it three consecutive home wins in the United Rugby Championship with a bonus point victory over the Ospreys at Kingspan Stadium on Friday night.
Richie Murphy’s side outscored their guests by six tries to two and had the bonus point wrapped up before half-time.
The maximum five points moves Ulster up to fourth in the table overnight.
With the Ireland squad being announced on Wednesday, Jacob Stockdale gave the national management a timely reminder of his abilities, scoring two tries to claim the man of the match accolade. Stockdale would have had a hat-trick only for a contender for try of the season to be ruled out.
Ulster’s first try on five minutes came from the familiar driving maul route.
The pack forced a penalty from a scrum on the Ospreys’ 22, Aidan Morgan kicked to the corner, and from the resulting line out hooker James McCormick scored his try for the province, dotting down at the back of maul, but John Cooney failed to convert.
Ulster unlocked the visitor’s defence again six minutes later.
Cormac Izuchukwu made a powerful run into the Ospreys’ 22, Mike Lowry and David McCann showed slick hands to release Stockdale and the Ireland winger went over unopposed in the corner, but Cooney again couldn’t add the extras.
Ulster were awarded a penalty try on 23 minutes and kicked a penalty to the corner. As the home pack looked set to rumble over, an Ospreys player came in from the side and stopped the maul illegally, which earned him a yellow card and the home side seven points.
Ulster thought they had sealed their bonus point try two minutes later as they produced a sweeping moved from their half which Stockdale finished off, but it was disallowed for a forward pass in the build-up.
Marcus Rea sealed Ulster’s bonus point on 32 minutes. The home side were camped on the Welsh region’s try line and after a series of pick and goes, the openside flanker powered over with Cooney converting.
The Ospreys cut Ulster’s half-time lead to 24-7 as they scored with one of their first entries into the home side’s 22 on 40 minutes.
They kicked a penalty to touch and from the maul hooker Sam Parry went over with Dan Edwards converting.
It took Ulster 10 minutes after the restart to get another try when they were awarded a penalty on the Ospreys line. McCormick took a quick tap and just blasted through a couple of weak attempted tackles in the Ospreys’ defence. Cooney failed to convert.
Ulster had Harry Sheridan sin-binned, and the Ospreys profited when, from a well worked tap penalty, winger Keelan Giles exploited the space to go over in the corner for an unconverted try on 61 minutes.
Stockdale got his second try of the night on 65 minutes, grounding the ball from a tight end before being knocked into touch with Nathan Doak slotting over the difficult conversion.