Ulster’s special seven in PRO14

It was a fifth try-scoring bonus point for Ulster as they stay two behind Leinster at the top of Conference A.

Ulster had to ride their luck having two men in the sin bin, missing four kicks at goal and butchering a two-on-one overlap.

Ulster struck on seven minutes with Rob Lyttle finishing off a sweeping move.

Ulster disrupted Scarlets possession in midfield, John Cooney pounced on the loose ball and started a counter-attack he offloaded to Matt Faddes, the Kiwi injected pace into the move, he passed to Lyttle and the winger cut inside, side-stepped the last two defenders to touch down but Cooney failed to convert.

Out half Dan Jones failed with an 11th-minute penalty after Eric O’Sullivan was punished for a scrum infringement.

Jones missed another opportunity two minutes later when his penalty from the 22 hit the upright.

Ulster lock Kieran Treadwell was yellow carded for a dangerous tackle on Scarlets prop Javan Sebastian on 16 minutes.

The Welsh region made their numerical advantage count immediately, they kicked the resulting penalty to the corner, the ball was worked inside, Jones hit centre Steff Hughes, he drew the defence before delaying his pass to put midfield partner Paul Asquith over with full back Angus O’Brien converting.

Ulster regained the lead on the half-hour mark, the Scarlets had an attacking scrum just outside the Ulster 22, No8 Sione Kalamafoni drove into the defence, scrum half Dane Blacker went for an audacious long pass but centre Stewart Moore made the read shot out of the line intercepted and showed all his pace to go under the visitors’ posts for his side’s second try, which Cooney converted.

Ulster’s third try arrived on the stoke of half-time, Bill Johnston kicked a penalty to the corner, the forwards set up a driving maul, John Andrew and Coetzee went close before flanker Sean Reidy managed to twist his body to ground the ball. Cooney’s conversion gave Dan McFarland’s side a 19-7 lead at the interval.

Scarlets scored 90 seconds after the restart, Ulster failed to gather the kick-off and knocked on, from the scrum Hughes put in a crossfield kick and Lyttle was caught out of position, allowing winger Ryan Conbeer to gather and sprint over for an unconverted try.

Faddes was sin-binned on 46 minutes for a high tackle on Conbeer.

With Ulster still down to 14 men the Scarlets got their third try, from a scrum on halfway they went to the blind side, Tyler Morgan opened up the home defence with a soaring pace before putting winger Steff Evans over in the corner. O’Brien’s conversion hit the post.

Treadwell got Ulster’s bonus point try on 65 minutes, the Scarlets knocked on from a defensive lineout, Reidy charged for the line, the ball was quickly recycled for the lock to barge over with Johnston converting.

The Scarlets got their bonus point as David O’Connor conceded a penalty which was kicked to the corner and the Welsh side set up a driving maul and replacement prop Phil Price rumbled over with O’Brien converting.

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