Flying First Half Gets The Job Done For Unbeaten Ulster

Player-of-the-match Sean Reidy and two-try winger Louis Ludik were standout performers in Ulster’s 40-17 Guinness PRO14 bonus point win over the Dragons at Kingspan Stadium.

Dan McFarland’s men had the bonus point wrapped up inside 32 minutes, with tries from Marcell Coetzee, Eric O’Sullivan, Reidy and Ludik (2) guiding them into a 35-3 half-time lead.

The Dragons improved after the break, crossing through Ashton Hewitt and replacement Jamie Roberts, but there was no denying Ulster and Alan O’Connor’s 66th-minute effort topped off their third straight victory in Conference A.

Giving his reaction afterwards, all-action flanker Reidy said: “It was pretty free-flowing rugby out there, fair play to Dragons, they fought right until the 80th minute there, but fair play to our boys, we got the bonus point out of it.

“We know we’re not the biggest team around, but we have good skills to try to move the point of contact a little bit. It seemed to pay dividends in that first half. It’s a shame we probably didn’t get into the swing of things in the second.

“We’ll go away, have a look at our game and move on to next week (away to Cardiff Blues). It’s all good, we’re all pushing ourselves along (in the back row), there’s a few young fellas as well who are pushing up through the ranks.

“There’s a pretty good buzz at the moment. You’ve got to turn up each week or you’re not going to be playing, so it’s good to see.”

It took just over four minutes for wind-backed Ulster to break the deadlock and the try came from a familiar source. Bustling number 8 Coetzee kept up his record of scoring in every PRO14 match so far this season, twisting free from a tackle to dot down from close range.

The Dragons responded with a fine break from Rhodri Williams but the ball was spilled forward when recycled, although Sam Davies’ ninth-minute penalty did get the visitors on the scoreboard.

Dean Ryan’s charges could not build on that glimmer of hope and spent the rest of the half attempting to repel wave after wave of Ulster’s swashbuckling attacks.

The hosts’ second try saw Coetzee turn provider, acrobatically palming back a pass above his head and setting up prop O’Sullivan to bulldoze through under the posts for his first senior score for the province.

The Ulster forwards were influential once more in the build-up to Reidy’s 26th-minute score, the blindside shrugging off Richard Hibbard’s attempted tackle to complete a crisp move that featured good work from O’Connor and Jordi Murphy.

A bonus point looked inevitable and it was secured just after the half hour mark. South African Ludik finished off a fine attack in the left corner via Murphy’s offload and two crisp passes from Ian Madigan and Matt Faddes.

One quickly became two for Ludik who this time popped up on the right hand side to collect an offload from Faddes, who had broken down the touchline, and pounce on the bouncing ball after it spilled free, having come off a Dragons hand.

John Cooney continued his flawless first half off the tee with a fifth successful conversion to widen the gap to 32 points at the turnaround. Whatever head coach Ryan said at half-time, it has the desired effect as the Dragons resumed in much better fettle.

The visitors scored the try their second half play deserved just past the hour through the pacy Hewitt, who collected Roberts’ pass and evaded Rob Lyttle’s tackle to go over in the corner.

Ulster, who had Faddes sin-binned for leading with an elbow into Adam Warren, reasserted their authority by mounting a rare second half attack which ended with lock O’Connor stretching over, with the foundations laid by a dominant lineout maul.

The province left a few late scoring chances behind them, and it was the spirited Dragons who had the final say when Roberts powered over with the clock in the red after a fine length-of-the-field move.