Ulster fought their way to a third straight home bonus point victory of the season at Kingspan Stadium, thus equalling the province’s record of 14 successive GUINNESS PRO12 matches without defeat at their south Belfast fortress.
Neil Doak’s side put an admittedly slow start behind them to run four tries past Cardiff, with Andrew Trimble, Paul Marshall, Nick Williams and Stuart McCloskey all getting their names on the scoresheet before well-drilled defence kept the plucky Blues at bay in the final quarter.
Paddy Jackson and Darren Cave returned from Rugby World Cup duty to the bench for the clash, with the remainder of the province’s international contingent rested, or, in the case of Jared Payne and Tommy Bowe, sidelined through substantial injuries sustained during the tournament.
The only personnel changes made by head coach Doak saw Ian Humphreys reinstated at out-half for his first competitive start of the season, while Lewis Stevenson came into the second row in place of Dan Tuohy, who suffered concussion against Edinburgh.
Already beaten on the road by the three other Irish provinces this season, Cardiff started like they meant business, forcing penalties at the breakdown and a subsequent scrum which presented out-half Rhys Patchell with an elementary three points in the third minute.
Once an advanced Ulster lineout and then a scrum had proven fruitless, the hosts began to find a little more joy through open play, but a handling error by number 8 Williams and a speculative up-and-under from Humphreys led to frustration.
That was until the out-half looped a defence-splitting pass to Louis Ludik on 18 minutes, with Trimble collecting from his full-back on the right wing to finish off his first try of the campaign.
Humphreys’ conversion from wide on the right fell short and with Patchell adding his second and third penalties either side of the half hour mark, Ulster needed the rest of the opening half to reestablish their lead.
After Blues number 8 Josh Turnbull had been yellow-carded in the 40th minute for recklessly launching himself feet-first into the middle of a maul where his studs caught Marshall on the side of the head, the Ulster scrum half dusted himself off to pick up from the resulting scrum and score his second try of the season, with Humphreys converting.
Leading 12-9 at the break, Doak’s charges began to turn the screw early in the second period, their well-orchestrated rolling maul travelling a good 20 metres infield for Williams to finally ground by the posts five minutes in, providing Humphreys with a simple conversion.
Williams, who turned in a man-of-the-match display, was instrumental in the bonus point score just four minutes later. He dummied an infield pass on the Cardif 22 before swivelling to pick out Trimble for an electric move which eventually saw centre McCloskey shrug off Patchell’s tackle to just stretch over the whitewash.
Humphreys’ missed conversion was his last contribution of the evening as Jackson came on to a rousing reception, soon to be joined by Cave, Peter Browne and Andrew Warwick.
Prop Wiehahn Herbst was sin-binned just before the hour for failing to retreat as the Blues tried to take a quick penalty, and Josh Navidi soon stretched over for the visitors’ first try, which went unconverted.
Undeterred, Ulster resisted the ensuing waves of Cardiff attack, Patchell eventually clawing back three points in the 72nd minute to bring his side to within a converted try of the province – 24-17
However, a flagrant tip tackle from winger Aled Summerhill on Craig Gilroy saw the visitors once again reduced to 14 men, essentially killing off their hopes of a comeback as Ulster saw out the game with a strong line defending their 22.
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