Ulster v Zebre: Rob Herring leads try scoring fest against Zebre as Ulster climb to third in PRO14 conference

Ulster made it back-to-back Guinness PRO14 wins with a 54-7 drubbing of Zebre, with Rob Herring scoring a hat-trick of tries in the eight-try romp on Saturday evening in Belfast.
By The Newsroom
Published 24th Feb 2019, 10:41 BST
Updated 24th Feb 2019, 11:55 BST
Ulster Rob Herring scores one of his three tries against ZebreUlster Rob Herring scores one of his three tries against Zebre
Ulster Rob Herring scores one of his three tries against Zebre

The result, with Rob Lyttle Ulster’s top scorer on 17 points from six conversions and a try, saw the Irish province move up to third in Conference B.

Ulster’s second try bonus of the season came at a timely moment in the close race to make the play-offs and was secured just on half-time at Kingspan Stadium when Lyttle scored in the corner.

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Ulster’s other tries came from Louis Ludik, Robert Baloucoune and Peter Nelson, as well as a penalty try.

Ulster's Rob Lyttle scores a try against ZebreUlster's Rob Lyttle scores a try against Zebre
Ulster's Rob Lyttle scores a try against Zebre

Hooker Herring opened the scoring for the hosts with a 15th-minute try which came off the back of a driving maul just after Zebre flanker James Brown had been yellow-carded for pulling down a previous maul.

Wing Lyttle missed the conversion but landed the next one six minutes later when Herring scored again, off the back of a driving maul.

Ludik was then yellow-carded in the 24th minute for slapping down a pass from Giulio Bisengi to Francois Brummer, with referee Mike Adamson consulting with the TMO before awarding the Italians a penalty try.

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Ulster then came back with Herring’s hat-trick, which came off yet another driving maul after Kieran Treadwell had taken the line-out.

Lyttle converted to extend the home side’s lead to 19-7.

Just on half-time, Ulster again went for the corner and even though they failed to launch the maul, Lyttle made the left corner for the bonus point try after an assist from Darren Cave.

The score was awarded after going to the TMO and Lyttle then added a superb touchline conversion to give Ulster a 26-7 interval advantage.

It took five minutes for the hosts to score again, this time they tried to do it through their maul only to be awarded a penalty try as Zebre dragged it down on the line.

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Try number six for Ulster was scored by Ludik in the 50th minute, with Lyttle again adding a great conversion to put Ulster 40-7 up.

The scoreline became 47-7 when Baloucoune was put over by replacement James Hume, with Lyttle adding his fifth conversion.

Nelson wriggled over for Ulster’s eighth try with less than 10 minutes remaining, Lyttle again converting to wrap up the scoring.

TEAM STATS:

ULSTER: Louis Ludik (Johnny McPhillips 62); Robert Baloucoune, Darren Cave, Stuart McCloskey (James Hume 46), Rob Lyttle; Peter Nelson, David Shanahan (Jonny Stewart 51); Eric O’Sullivan (Andrew Warwick 50), Rob Herring (John Andrew 65), Marty Moore (Ross Kane 50); Alan O’Connor (Ian Nagle 51), Kieran Treadwell; Clive Ross, Sean Reidy, Nick Timoney (Greg Jones 51).

Yellow card: Louis Ludik (25-35)

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ZEBRE: Francois Brummer (Maicol Azzolini 64); Paula Balekana, Giulio Bisegni, Nicolas de Battista (Giovanbattista Venditti 69), James Elliott; Carlo Canna, Joshua Renton (Riccardo Raffaele 69); Daniele Rimpelli (Danilo Fischetti 50), Oliviero Fabiani (Luhandre Luus 50), Eduardo Bello (Roberto Tenga 28); Leonard Krumov (Massimo Ceciliani 75), George Biagi (Alessandro Mordacci 62); Apisai Tauyavuca, James Brown, Jacopo Bianchi.

Related topics:UlsterBelfast