Ulster end Blues' run
Ulster ended Cardiff Blues' four-game winning run with a thrilling 32-13 bonus-point victory at Ravenhill.
Ulster ended Cardiff Blues' four-game winning run with a thrilling 32-13 bonus-point victory at Ravenhill.
The win was the Ravenhill-based sides' fourth over Welsh clubs this season with their 23-22 defeat to the Ospreys their only loss in six games.
Tries from Craig Gilroy, Ruan Pienaar, Andrew Trimble and Luke Marshall aided by 12 points from the boot of influential fly-half Ian Humphreys eased them to an important victory.
The home side started the brighter and opened up a 10 point lead after 13 minutes. Having already had one try controversially disallowed, Humphreys' collected his own speculative kick before drawing the last defender and allowing winger Gilroy an easy run to the line.
Ulster then added a further three points through the boot of their stand-off. However, the Blues hit back, fly-half Ceri Sweeney exchanging off-loads with full-back Dan Fish to give Cardiff their first points of the match, with Sweeney converting.
On 24 minutes, South African Pienaar sniped through a gap for a converted score, but the away side's stand-off added a penalty to reduce the gap to 17-10 at half-time.
Not long into the second period, Humphreys was off target with the boot, but that wasn't to matter as winger Trimble sneaked over in the corner, with Ulster's fly-half missing the conversion from out wide.
Both sides then traded penalties before substitute prop Paddy McAllister was sin-binned for the home side. However, it was Ulster who extended their lead when centre Marshall touched down and thus wrapped up an impressive win.
The scorers:
For Ulster:
Tries: Trimble, Pienaar, Marshall, Gilroy
Cons: Humphreys 3
Pens: Humphreys 2
For Cardiff Blues:Try: Fish
Con: Sweeney
Pens: Sweeney 2
Ulster: 15 Adam D'Arcy, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Nevin Spence, 12 Luke Marshall, 11 Craig Gilroy, 10 Ian Humphreys, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Pedrie Wannenburg, 7 Willie Faloon, 6 Chris Henry, 5 Tim Barker, 4 Johann Muller (capt), 3 Declan Fitzpatrick, 2 Andi Kyriacou, 1 Bryan Young.
Replacements: 16 Nigel Brady, 17 Paddy McAllister, 18 Jerry Cronin, 19 Ryan Caldwell, 20 TJ Anderson, 21 Paul Marshall, 22 Ian Whitten, 23 Tommy Seymour.
Cardiff Blues: 15 Dan Fish, 14 Richard Mustoe, 13 Gavin Evans, 12 Dafydd Hewitt, 11 Tom James, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Rhys Downes, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Andries Pretorius, 5 Paul Tito (capt), 4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Scott Andrews, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 Taufa'ao Filise.
Replacements: 16 Gareth Williams, 17 Nathan Trevett, 18 Sam Hobbs, 19 Ben White, 20 Ma'ama Molitika, 21 Tom Slater, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 James Loxton.